GOV. WINSLOW'S ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVES OF NEW ENGLAND, ANNEXED TO HIS NARRATIVE OF THE PLANTATIONS. A. D. 1624.*

A few things I thought meet to add hereunto, which I have observed amongst the Indians; both touching their religion and sundry other customs among them. And first, whereas myself and others, in former letters, (which came to the press against my will and knowledge,) wrote that the Indians about us are a people without any religion, or knowledge of any God; therein I erred, though we could then gather no better; for as they conceive of many divine powers, so of one, whom they call Kiehtan,† to be the principal maker of all the rest; and to be made by none. He, they say, created the heavens, earth, sea, and all creatures contained therein. Also that he made one man and one woman, of whom they and we and all mankind came; but how they became so far dispersed, that they know not. At first, they say, there was no sachem or king, but Kiehtan, who dwelleth above the heavens, whither all good men go when they die, to see their friends, and have their fill of all things. This his habitation lieth westward in the heavens, they say; thither the bad men go also, and knock at his door, but he bids them quachet, that is to say, walk abroad, for there is no place for such; so that they wander in restless want and penury. Never man saw this Kiehtan, only old men tell them of him, and bid them tell their children, yea, charge them to teach their posterities the same, and lay the like charge upon them. This power they acknowledge to be good; and when they would obtain any great matter, meet together and cry unto him; and so likewise for plenty, victory, etc., sing, dance, feast, give thanks, and hang up garlands and other things in memory of the same.

Another power they worship, whom they call Hobbamock, and to the northward of us, Hobbamoqui; this, as far as we can conceive, is the

*This account of the Natives, will deeply interest all the readers of the preceding pages.

↑ The meaning of the word Kiehtan hath reference to antiquity, for chise is an old man, and Kieh-chise a man that exceedeth in age.

devil. Him they call upon, to cure their wounds and diseases. When they are curable, he persuades them he sends the same, for some conceived anger against them; but upon their calling upon him, can and doth help them; but when they are mortal and not curable in nature, then he persuades them Kiehtan is angry, and sends them, whom none can cure; insomuch as in that respect only they somewhat doubt whether he be simply good, and therefore in sickness never call upon him. This Hobbamock appears in sundry forms unto them, as in the shape of a man, a deer, a fawn, an eagle, etc., but most ordinarily a snake. He appears not to all, but the chiefest and most judicious among them; though all of them strive to attain to that hellish height of honor. He appears most ordinary, and is most conversant with three sorts of people; one, I confess I neither know by name or office directly; of these they have few, but esteem highly of them, and think no weapon can kill them; another they call by the name of Powah, and the third Paniese.

The office and duty of the Powah is to be exercised principally in calling upon the devil, and curing diseases of the sick or wounded. The common people join with them in the exercise of invocation, but do but only assent, or as we term it, say amen to that he saith; yet sometime break out into a short musical note with him. The Powah is eager and free in speech, fierce in countenance, and joineth many antic and laborious gestures with the same, over the party diseased. If the party be wounded, he will also seem to suck the wound; but if they be curable, (as they say,) he toucheth it not, but a shooke, that is the snake, or Wobsacuck, that is the eagle, sitteth on the shoulder, and licks the same. This none see but the Powah, who tells them he doth it himself. If the party be otherwise diseased, it is accounted sufficient if in any shape he but come into the house, taking it for an undoubted sign of recovery.

And as in former ages Apollo had his temple at Delphos, and Diana at Ephesus, so have I heard them call upon some as if they had their residence in some certain places, or because they appeared in those forms in the same. In the Powah's speech, he promiseth to sacrifice many skins of beasts, kettles, hatchets, beads, knives, and other the best things they have to the fiend, if he will come to help the party diseased; but whether they perform it I know not. The other practices I have seen, being necessarily called sometimes to be with their sick, and have used the best arguments I could to make them understand against the same. They have told me I should see the devil at those times come to the party; but I assured myself and

them of the contrary, which so proved; yea, themselves have confessed they never saw him when any of us were present. In desperate and extraordinary hard travail in child-birth, when the party cannot be delivered by the ordinary means, they send for this Powah; though ordinarily their travail is not so extreme as in other parts of the world, they being of a more hardy nature; for on the third day after child-birth, I have seen the mother with the infant, upon a small occasion, in cold weather, in a boat upon the sea.

Many sacrifices the Indians use, and in some cases they kill chil

It seemeth they are various in their religious worship in a little distance, and grow more and more cold in their worship to Kiehtan: saying, in their memory, he was much more called upon. The Narragansets exceed in their blind devotion, and have a great spacious house, wherein only some few (that are, as we may term them, Priests) come: thither, at certain known times, resort all their people, and offer almost all the riches they have to their gods, as kettles, skins, hatchets, beads, knives, etc., all which are cast by the priests into a great fire that they make in the midst of the house, and there consumed to ashes. To this offering every man bringeth freely; and the more he is known to bring, hath the better esteem of all men. This, the other Indians about us approve of as good, and wish their Sachems would appoint the like; and because the plague has not reigned at Narraganset as at other places about them, they attribute to this custom there used.

The Panieses are men of great courage and wisdom, and to these also the devil appeareth more familiarly than to others, and as we conceive, maketh covenant with them to preserve them from death, by wounds with arrows, knives, hatchets, etc., or at least both themselves and especially the people think themselves to be freed from the same. And though against their battles all of them by painting, disfigure themselves, yet they are known by their courage and boldness, by reason whereof one of them will chase almost an hundred men; for they account it death for whomsoever stand in their way. These are highly esteemed of all sorts of people, and are of the sachems' counsel, without whom they will not war, or undertake any weighty business. In war their sachems, for their more safety, go in the midst of them. They are commonly men of great stature and strength, and such as will endure most hardness, and yet are more discreet, courteous and humane in their carriages than any amongst them, scorning theft, lying, and the like base dealings, and stand as much upon their reputation as any men. And to the end they may have store of these,

they train up the most forward and likeliest boys, from their childhood, in great hardness, and make them abstain from dainty meat, observing divers orders prescribed, to the end that when they are of age, the devil may appear to them, causing to drink the juice of sentry and other bitter herbs, till they cast, which they must disgorge into the platter, and drink again and again, till at length through extraordinary pressing of nature, it will seem to be all blood; and this the boys will do with eagerness at the first, and so continue till by reason of faintness, they can scarce stand on their legs, and then must go forth into the cold: also they beat their shins with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes and stumps and brambles, to make them hardy and acceptable to the devil, that in time he may appear unto them.

Their sachems cannot be all called kings, but only some few of them, to whom the rest resort for protection and pay homage unto them; neither may they war without their knowledge and approbation; yet to be commanded by the greater, as occasion seemeth. Of this sort is Massasoit our friend, and Canonicus of Narraganset, our supposed enemy. Every sachem taketh care of the widow and fatherless, also for such as are aged and any way maimed, if their friends be dead, or not able to provide for them. A sachem will not take any to wife but such an one as is equal to him in birth; otherwise, they say their seed would in time become ignoble; and though they have many other wives, yet are they no other than concubines or servants, and yield a kind of obedience to the principal, who ordereth the family and them in it. The like their men observe also, and will adhere to the first during their lives; but put away the other at their pleasure. This government is successive and not by choice; if the father die before the son or daughter be of age, then the child is committed to the protection and tuition of some one amongst them, who ruleth in his stead till he be of age, but when that is I know not.

Every sachem knoweth how far the bounds and limits of his own country extendeth; and that is his own proper inheritance; out of that, if any of his men desire land to set their corn, he giveth them as much as they can use, and sets them in their bounds. In this circuit, whoever hunteth, if any kill venison, they bring him his fee; which is four parts of the same, if it be killed on land, but if in the water, then the skin thereof. The great sachems or kings know not their own bounds or limits of land, as well as the rest. All travellers or strangers for the most part lodge at the sachem's. When they come, they tell them how long they will stay and to what place they

go; during which time they receive entertainment, according to their persons, but want not. Once a year the Panieses use to provoke the people to bestow much corn on the sachem. To that end, they appoint a certain time and place, near the sachem's dwelling, where the people bring many baskets of corn and make a great stack thereof. There the Panieses stand ready to give thanks to the people, on the sachem's behalf; and after acquaint the sachem therewith, who fetcheth the same and is no less thankful, bestowing many gifts on them.

When any are visited with sickness, their friends resort unto them for their comfort, and continue with them oftentimes till their death or recovery. If they die, they stay a certain time to mourn for them. Night and morning they perform this duty, many days after the burial, in a most doleful manner, insomuch as though it be ordinary and the note musical which they take from one another and altogether; yet it will draw tears from their eyes and almost from ours also. But if they recover, then because their sickness was chargeable, they send corn and other gifts unto them, at a certain appointed time, whereat they feast and dance, which they call commoro. When they bury the dead, they sow up the corpse in a mat, and so put it in the earth; if the party be a sachem, they cover him with many curious mats, and bury all his riches with him, and inclose the grave with a pale. If it be a child, the father will also put his own most special jewels and ornaments in the earth with it; also he will cut his hair, and disfigure himself very much in token of sorrow. If it be the man or woman of the house; they will pull down the mats, and leave the frame standing, and bury them in or near the same, and either remove their dwelling or give over housekeeping.

The men employ themselves wholly in hunting, and other exercises of the bow, except at sometimes they take some pains in fishing. The women live a most slavish life; they carry all their burdens; set and dress their corn, gather it in, and seek out for much of their food; beat and make ready the corn to eat, and have all household care lying upon them.

The younger sort reverence the elder, and do all mean offices, whilst they are together, although they be strangers. Boys and girls may not wear their hair like men and women, but are distinguished thereby.

A man is not accounted a man till he do some notable act, or show forth such courage and resolution as becometh his place. The men take much tobacco, but for boys so to do, they account it odious.

All their names are significant and variable; for when they come