USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > The history of Salem, Massachusetts, vol 1, 1924 > Part 4
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1Diary of Rev. William Bentley, under date of Oct. 24, 1803.
"Diary of Rev. William Bentley, under date of 1809.
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THE INDIANS
hair adhered firmly to the skull. The hair was black and bright, and about two and one-half feet long. With them were found an iron hatchet, an iron knife-blade much decayed by rust, some coarse cloth made of flags or rushes, a short-stemmed smoking pipe, and a large number of bone arrow heads preserved by the copper in fine condition. Some stone arrow-heads, large and in the form of a heart, some lobsters' claws, a fishing line in good form but very rotten, and a line of larger size, both made from some fibrous plant, a wooden ladle or bowl and some wooden spoons were also found.1 These remains may have belonged to more than one period or race, apparently some of them being of comparatively late date.
THROGMORTON COVE, MARBLEHEAD.
Beautiful Throgmorton Cove, off Salem harbor, in Marble- head, was the place in original Salem most sought by the Indians for their summer sojourn at the sea-shore. Between the hills to the west of the cove was a huge collection of shells, which indicates that the occupation of this spot must have been for a long time.2 Shell heaps like this also furnish evidence similar to graves. This great heap of shells was removed about the year 1850, for utiliza-
1John Lee, in History of Manchester, 1895. This find was the most interesting ever unearthed in Essex County, but the relics were never put in a permanent collection and hence were lost to science. The burial was no doubt in early colonial times or just before, as the objects found must have been obtained from the whites-colonists or voyagers.
2Bulletin of Essex Institute, volume XV, page 86.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
tion of its material as a fertilizer. It contained about thirty cords of shells and ashes, among which were found bones of a large deer, together with pieces of crudely ornamented pottery, bits of copper and stone implements. There were a few shells of the
SITE OF SHELL HEAP, MARBLEHEAD.
oyster, but most of those found were clam shells, some being of species now extinct in this vicinity. There were other small shell heaps on Salem Neck and near the "mill pond" of the South River. There were a few in Beverly. As they were but waste piles no perfect implements, except those which had been lost, were found in them.
The typical dwelling of the Indians here was the conical wigwam, small and plain. It was made with small poles, stuck into the ground, and bent and fastened together at the top with the tough bark of walnut trees. On the sides they were covered with mats of boughs, reeds, long flags or sedges, sewed together with needles made of the splinter bones of a crane's leg and thread made of native hemp. Their houses were often the merest sort of shelter, hardly more than the simplest booth of the woodsman. The better houses were made on frames formed like a garden arbor, round or oval These were sometimes sixty feet in length and thirty feet in width.1 They were strong, and some of them
1Historical Collections of the Indians in New England, by Daniel Gookin, 1674, in Massachusetts Historical Collections, volume I, page 150.
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THE INDIANS
handsome, being covered with mats so closely woven that both wind and rain were excluded. At the top was a hole for the smoke from the central fire within to escape and for a draft. Some of the long houses, according to their length, had two or three fires, and a corresponding number of holes in the top for the smoke to escape. In rainy weather the apertures were cov- ered; and then the smoke collected in the wigwam. almost suffocatingly. The large houses would accommodate about as many persons as could lie around the fires.
They never used chairs or stools, and slept on mats, with covering of skins of deer, otters, beavers, raccoons or bears, which they had dressed with the hair on. For light, they used the pitchy splints of the pine trees, cloven in two, which burned clearly.1 They had water pails made of birch bark, and also, baskets, dishes, pots, spoons, etc. The shells of gourds were employed for storage and carrying, as water jugs, dippers, spoons and dishes, and also for pottery smoothers, roof drains, masks, parts of ornaments, etc.
Their food was scanty usually. In summer they lived on all kinds of birds, sea-fish, and berries; and in winter on a great variety of fowls, animals, pond fish, nuts, acorns, roots, corn, beans and clams. They boiled their food in substantial earthen pots which they had wrought, or roasted it on the end of sticks stuck into the ground before the fire, turning these natural spits from time to time as it became necessary. Sometimes a row of such roasts extended around a fire. They had no salt, and pre- served flesh by fumigation or temporarily, in the winter, by bury- ing it in the snow. They rarely, if ever, made corn bread, but seethed the corn whole, sometimes using beans with it. This combination was called succotash. They preserved their surplus corn in the ground in baskets made of rushes and osiers, protected with mats. The holes in the ground were as large as a hogshead. In summer, when the dry corn was gone, they used a small variety of squash for bread. Sometimes, they ate all the food they had, and then went without for two or three days apparently lacking in prudence in this respect, both for themselves and their families. Their drink was water. They all met as friends at their meals. Married women were not allowed to eat with them, but were kept back, getting such fragments as they might. When traveling, their principal food was corn, which they had parched in hot ashes, and after sifting the ashes from it, beat to powder in a stone or wooden mortar. It was moistened with water and made into a paste which they called nookkek, and was carried in a leather bag, slung at their back, from which they ate in small
1New Englands Plantation,
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HISTORY OF SALEM
quantities three times a day, but having no set meals. When ordinary food was scarce, Indians living near tidal waters secured a supply of food from the clam banks. Though food might be scanty, the Indians freely shared it with other Indians or the English, strangers or acquaintances. When one killed a deer, he sent for his friends to enjoy it with him; this generosity was so manifest with other possessions as well that the English declared an Indian would freely give his friend anything he had, except his wife.
Their marital relations were controlled by certain rules or laws. The king, or the great powwows, could have two or three wives, but they seldom exercised the right. Other men had only one wife. When a man wished to marry he obtained the consent of the woman whom he wished to become his bride, and then of her friends ; and, if approved by the king, the dowry of wampum- peag was paid, and the marriage was consummated by the king joining the hands of bride and groom. There was no divorce, except for adultery.
Generally, the Indians were idle, except when hunting or fishing. Their wives or squaws, as they were called, constructed the house, planted the corn, fished for bass and codfish, and caught lobsters for bait for their husbands. They caught the bait daily, whether the weather was hot or cold, the waters calm or rough, diving for the lobsters. They also dried lobsters to keep for winter use, and also bass and other kinds of fish without salt. In summer they gathered flags, of which they made mats for their dwellings, and hemp and rushes of which they made curious woven and coiled baskets with designs of antique imagery and colored with dye stuffs. This was the primitive textile art.
The Indians dressed all kinds of skins by scraping and rub- bing, and then painting them with antique embroidery, in un- changeable colors, sometimes taking off the hair. Their bows were of graceful shape, and strung with sinews of the moose. They made arrows of young elder, feathered by eagle's wings and tails, the heads, heart or triangular shaped, being fastened in a slender piece of wood six or eight inches long, and placed loose in the elder arrow from which the pith had been removed wholly or partly, to accommodate it. The arrows were tipped with stone or bone.
The Indians wondered at the mechanical appliances of the settlers, and greatly praised their inventions. The windmill, which ground corn so fine, was esteemed to be marvelous. They watched the motion of the arms, moving about, now in one direction and then in another, to catch the wind; and saw the sharp teeth bite the corn into indistinguishable pieces. The first plowman turning up more ground in a day than they, with their clam shells, could
ARROW HEADS.
SPEAR HEAD.
GOUGE.
AXE.
HATCHET.
CHISEL.
AXE.
TOTEM.
STONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC.
35
1236190
THE INDIANS
scrape up in a month, was little less than the work of Abamacho himself. When they had become accustomed to these things they showed considerable ingenuity and invention in making things for themselves. If they had continued here in considerable numbers and for a lengthened period, they could have become proficient in the trades, having strong memories, quick discernment and dex- terity in the use of the axe and hatchet and such tools. There was but one hindrance, and that was the confirmed habit of idleness.
Their canoes were the only means of artificial locomotion. These were produced in. two ways. One kind was the dug-out, which they shaped out of the trunks of pine trees by repeatedly building fires on one side of the log sufficient to char the wood, which they scraped out with clam or oyster shells, and the outside they formed with stone hatchets. The largest of these boats was two feet wide and twenty feet long. The other kind of canoe was made of birch bark, close-ribbed on the inside with broad thin hoops. They were so light that a man could carry one a mile. The Indians took them on long trips in order to cross rivers and lakes.
Many thousands of stone implements and some of bone have been found within the territory of original Salem.1 The most common are arrow heads, which are of many shapes and sizes from the diminutive tips or points to those large enough for use as spears. In the plate showing some of the principal stone imple- ments found here, the row of arrow heads are representative. All of these, probably, were made here, several places where the arrow-makers produced them being known. One is on the western side of Legg's Hill, and another is on the western side of the ledge at the southwestern corner of Forest River Park, in Salem. Near "the churn" on Marblehead Neck is a place in a ledge of felsite rock, which was undoubtedly worked by the aborigines. Myriads of clippings lie about it, and half-formed relics have been found there. Stone spear heads are also common,1 and varied in size and shape. The one shown in the illustration was found on the shore of the lake in Wenham. Some are seven or eight inches in length, three inches in width and not more than three-eighths of an inch in thickness. Spear heads made of bone have been found in Marblehead. The stone knives of the Indians were often shaped like a spear head, and with them the hunter skinned and dressed a deer almost as quickly as an Englishman with his hunting knife. A typical semi-lunar slate knife, five inches in length, thin and beautifully finished, was found in Salem.2 It is a perfect specimen; its back is about half an inch
1Many of these are deposited in the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem.
2This is preserved in the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
thick, and a little more than a quarter of an inch at the center, being finely brought to a sharp cutting edge. Grooved hammers are also common. They were made by cutting a groove around a large smooth oblong pebble. The handle was fastened to the stone by passing thongs, etc., in the groove around the stone and wooden handle. Small hammers were often used without handles, being held in the hand. Stone axes, generally made of a heavy, close-grained material, susceptible of polish, are not uncommon. They are of many sizes and shapes, and deeply ridged and grooved for the reception of handles by cutting a groove or by leaving ridges toward the head. In the plate is illustrated one of the larger size of axes. It weighs eight and one-quarter pounds, and was found in North Salem.1 Another specimen shown in the plate was found on the Pickman farm, in Salem. It weighs two and one-fourth pounds, has a pointed head and its blade is narrow with parallel sides.1 A hatchet, found in Danvers, weighing one and one-fourth pounds, is also shown in the plate.1 This has a fine cutting edge. Axes have also been found at Liberty Hill, in Salem, on the Brown farm, in Marblehead, on Baker's Island, and in Peabody, Beverly and Danvers.2 Some of them are sharp enough to cut wood ; but it must have taken an Indian a long time to fell an ordinary tree, whether it was soft or hard wood. Several early authors speak of the handing down, from father to son, of the cherished stone axe. Gouges, made of stone, have been found in Marblehead, Wenham, and on Bridge Street and Gallows Hill and elsewhere in Salem.2 'The gouge shown in the plate was found at Beverly Farms, and is one of the best specimens ever secured.1 Chisels with flat cutting surfaces have been found in Beverly and Peabody and at Fort Pickering in Salem.3 3 The specimen shown in the plate was found in Marblehead and is of large size.1 An adze blade was found at Beverly Farms. Drills and awls of stone and of bone are sometimes found. Four spoons, made of bone, were found in an Indian grave on Lagrange Street, in Salem. One of these, four and one-half inches in length, and of a peculiar pattern, was carefully shaped from a portion of the jaw of a porpoise. The handle was ornamented elaborately by incised lines, placed at regular distances, producing a pleasing effect. Plummets of stone are common, being of the same general pear-shaped pattern, and varying in weight from an ounce to several pounds. Many of these stones are probably sinkers, and some are pestles. Others may have been used as weights in spin- ning or twisting cords. Mortars were made of wood or stone. Pestles were generally pebbles from the sea-shore, or made by
1This is preserved in the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem.
"These are preserved in the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science.
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THE INDIANS
pecking pieces of slate or some soft stone into the proper shape. The Indians were in the habit of suspending the pestle from the limb of a tree, which acted as a spring, and lifted it from the mortar. Personal ornaments have been found in Peabody, and are of various designs.1 A number of totems have been found here. The one shown in the plate is twenty inches in length, with a snake's head, and was found in Beverly.1 Another totem, found at the corner of Essex and Boston streets, in Salem, about 1830, repre- sents a bear, and is about six inches in height.1 In several graves in Beverly, pipes, made from a single piece of stone, were found by Prof. Frederick W. Putnam.2 The bowls are three inches high and the bottom five and one-half inches long. In these graves were arrow heads and large pendants. In one of them was also a thin slab of smooth sandstone with scratches upon it like a ladder, such as a child might make. STONE BEAR.
The pottery of the Indians was made from clay, some of it being plain and some ornamented with various conventional designs. Only fragments have been found here.
Fire was one of the best servants of the Indians in working wood, from the fashioning of the water dug-out to the small corn mortar. Trees were felled and cut into sections by fire, and then with stone axes, chisels or gouges, fashioned into a variety of wooden articles. Fire was used to char that part of the material to be removed by these implements. Dishes were thus made.
John Brereton, a contemporary of the Massachusetts Indians when they were in the zenith of their strength and power, wrote, in 1602, that "they strike fire in this manner ; every one carrieth about with him in a purse of tewed leather, a mineral stone (which I take to be copper) and with a flat emery stone (where- with glaciers cut glass, and cuttlers glaze blades) tied fast to the end of a little stick, gently he striketh upon the mineral stone, and within a stroke or two, a spark falleth upon a piece of touch wood (much like our sponge in England) and with the least spark he maketh a fire presently."3 Probably the primitive method of the
1See collections in the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem.
2These pipes are deposited in the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem. A soapstone pipe has also been found on Salem Neck, and deposited in this museum.
3Brief and True Relation of the Discovery of the North Part of Vir- ginia, by John Brereton, London, 1602.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
savage was the rubbing together of two pieces of wood,- elm, maple and buttonwood being used in this region. Willow catkins, frayed cedar bark, dried fungi, grass and other easily ignited materials received the spark which was produced. Touchwood of punk obtained from decayed trees were used for preserving fire. From the spark to a blazing camp-fire considerable labor, skill and forethought were required. Fire-making was an important feature in a number of ceremonies as well as necessary for warmth and cooking of food.
Though most of the land in this region was covered with forest, the English found that much ground had been cleared by the Indians2 for the cultivation of maize, pumpkins, beans (the variety now called seiver), a species of sunflower which had an esculent tuberous root, resembling the artichoke in taste, and cucumbers and water melons. One tool sufficed for their meager husbandry. This was a kind of hoe made of a clam shell or of a shoulder-blade of a moose, fastened to the end of a wooden handle. The Indians fertilized their land, if at all, with fish, placed with the seed in the hill.
The chief animals they hunted were deer, moose and bears ; and they also took wolves, wild cats, raccoons, otters, beavers and musquash, trading both skin and flesh to the English. They set deer traps, which were formed of springs made of young trees, and smooth cord that they had wrought. In these traps, besides deer, moose and bears, wolves, wild cats and foxes were caught. Traps of other kinds were made for beavers and otters. They were expert fishermen, knowing when to fish in the river, at the rocks, in the bay and out at sea. They curiously wrought their fish lines of hemp and hooks of bone, and also made strong nets for sturgeon fishing, sometimes taking specimens from twelve to eighteen feet in length, in the daytime. In the night, they went out in their birch canoes, carrying a forty-fathom line, with a sharp bearded dart, fastened at one end. When out where they thought sturgeon would be found, they lighted a torch made of birch bark, and waved it, blazing, by the side of the canoe. On seeing the light the sturgeon approached the boat with manifest delight and excitement, trembling and playing and turning up their white bellies into which the fisherman thrust his lance, the back being impenetrable, and drew their struggling prize to the shore.
For sports they had target and other shooting; and, those involving much physical exercise, football and feats of running and swimming. In football, their goals were a mile long and placed on the level sands. The ball was the size of a hand ball, which they sometimes kicked with their naked feet.
1New Englands Plantation.
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THE INDIANS
They had two games, puim and hubbub. The first was a gambling game, played by fifty or sixty pieces of the reed or grass known as bent, a foot long, divided among the participants, after being shuffled between the palms of their hands. Hubbub was played with five small bones like dice, but somewhat flatter, being black on one side and white on the other. They placed these pieces of bone in a small smooth tray or platter, which they put on the ground. By hitting the platter violently they caused the dice to rise and fall, changing their position, and also by the motion of their hands they caused a current of air to assist in turning over the dice as they rose and fell in the tray. While playing they smote their breasts and thighs, crying "Hub, hub, hub," making so much noise that they could be heard a quarter of a mile.
The comet which disturbed Europe in 1616 was noticed by the Indians here. It was to them a messenger of "some strange things to follow." The next summer, "the ancient 1eport, there befell a great mortality among them, the greatest that ever the memory of Father to Sonne tooke notice of. Their Disease being a sore consumption, sweeping away whole Families, but chiefly yong Men and Children, the very seeds of increase their Powwowes, which are their Doctors, working partly by Charmes, and partly by Medicine, were much amazed to see their Wigwams lie ful of dead Corpes, and that now neither Squantam nor Abbamocho could helpe, which are their good and bad God and also their Powwows themselves were oft smitten with deaths stroke, howling and much lamentation was heard among the living, who being possest with great feare, oftimes left their dead un- buried, their manner being such that they remove their habitations at death of any, this great mortality being an unwonted thing, feare them the more, because naturally the Country is very healthy etc."" The pestilence continued three years, sweeping away more than nine-tenths of the native population, along the sea-coast for about one hundred miles and in some localities it destroyed nearly every man, woman and child.2 The body became exceedingly yellow before the patient died and also afterward.3 Mention is made of "a three yeares Plague, which swept away most of the inhabitants all along the Sea Coast, and in some places utterly consumed man, woman and childe, so that there is no person left to lay claim to the soyle. . In most of the rest the Contagion hath scarce left alive one person of an hundred." Morton said : "The hand of God fell heavily upon them, with such a mortal
1A History of New England: Wonder-Working Providence of Sions Saviour, book I, chapter 8.
2The Planters Plea, 1630; Hutchinson, I : 38, note.
3Historical Collections of the Indians in New England, by Daniel Gookin.
The Planters Plea, London, 1630, Chapter IV.
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HISTORY OF SALEM
stroake, that they died on heapes."" Capt. John Smith wrote that it seemed as if God had "provided this Country for our Nation, destroying the natives by the plague, if not touching an English- man, though many traded and were conversant amongst them ; for they had three plagues in three years successively neere two hun- dred miles along the Sea coast, that in some places there scarce re- mained five of the hundred, and as they report thus it began: A fishing shipe being cast away upon the coast, two of the men escaped on shore; one of them died, the other liued among the natives till he had learned their language : then he perswaded them to become Christians, shewing them a Testament, some parts thereof expounding so well as he could, but they so much derided him, that he told them hee feared God would destroy them : where- at the King assembled all his people about a hill, himselfe with the King assembled all his people about a hill, himselfe with the Christian standing on the top, demanded if his God has so many people and able to kill all those? He answered yes, and surely would, and bring in strangers to possesse their land ; but not so long they mocked him and his God, that not long after such a sicknesse came, that of five or six hundred about the Massachu- setts there remained but thirty on whom their neighbors fell and Slew twenty-eight: the two remaining fled the Country till the English came, then they returned and surrendered their Countrey and title to the English: if this be not true in every particular, excuse me. I pray you, for I am not the Author ; but it is most certaine there was an exceeding great plague amongst them: for where I have seene two or three hundred, within three years after remained scarce thirty, but what disease it was the Salvages knew not till the English told them, never having seene nor heard of the like before."2 " The symptoms resembled yellow fever, but whether it was that or small pox or some other pestilential disease will probably never be known. It was malignant, and raged in both cold of winter and heat of summer. It practically destroyed the shore tribes from Penobscot River to Narragansett Bay.
When the English settled here, the region was practically unoccupied, as the Indians, being few in number, needed but a small portion of the land for cultivation and the chase. It is impossible to understand and appreciate the thoughts and feelings of the red men of the forest as they saw whole tribes disappear before relentless disease, and very, very few individuals left in any of the tribes. Despondency settled over them, as all hope of future enjoyment was forever banished, their spirit broken, and life robbed of its greatest attraction and comfort-human regard,
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