Three Visitors to Early Plymouth: Letters about the Pilgrim settlement in New England during its first seven yearsAltham, Emmanuel
History
Three Visitors to Early Plymouth: Letters about the Pilgrim settlement in New England during its first seven years
Altham, Emmanuel
Massachusetts -- History -- New Plymouth, 1620-1691
These tribes of savages all have a government. The men in general are
rather tall, well proportioned in their limbs, and of an orange color,
like the Brazilians; very inveterate against those whom they hate; cruel
by nature, and so inclined to freedom that they cannot by any means be
brought to work. They support themselves by hunting, and when the spring
comes, by fishing. In April, May and June, they follow the course of
these,[147] which they catch with a drag-net they themselves knit very
neatly, of the wild hemp, from which the women and old men spin the
thread. The kinds of fish which they principally take at this time are
shad, but smaller than those in this country ordinarily are, though
quite as fat, and very bony; the largest fish is a sort of white salmon,
which is of very good flavor, and quite as large; it has white scales;
the heads are so full of fat that in some there are two or three
spoonfuls, so that there is good eating for one who is fond of picking
heads. It seems that this fish makes them lascivious, for it is often
observed that those who have caught any when they have gone fishing,
have given them, on their return, to the women, who look for them
anxiously. Our people give the same report; it is the same with them
when they eat a great deal at one time, as can be shown by the shirts.
As an employment in winter they make sewan, which is an oblong bead that
they make from cockle-shells, which they find on the sea-shore, and they
consider it as valuable as we do money here, since one can buy with it
everything they have. They string it, and wear it around the neck and
hands; they also make bands of it, which the women wear on the forehead
under the hair, and the men around the body; and they are as particular
about the stringing and sorting as we can be here about pearls. They are
very fond of a game they call _Senneca_, played with some round rushes,
similar to the Spanish feather-grass, which they understand how to
shuffle and deal as though they were playing with cards; and they win
from each other all that they possess, even to the lappet with which
they cover their private parts, and so they separate from each other
quite naked. They are very much addicted to promiscuous intercourse.
Their clothing is simple as to leave the body almost naked. In the
winter time they usually wear a dressed deer skin; some have a bear’s
skin about the body, some a coat of scales, some a covering made of
turkey feathers which they understand how to knit together very oddly,
with small strings. They also use a good deal of duffel cloth, which
they buy from us, and which serves for their blanket by night, and their
dress by day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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