USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 3
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32
HISTORY OF WARREN.
to be cousins to the Hindus, Hottentots, and Negroes, perhaps to the gorillas and orang-otangs.
We do not propose to go further in this antiquarian or anthro- pological expedition, but think that our readers, from what has been thus briefly presented, will come to the sage conclusion that the Pemigewassetts came from somewhere, the Lord only knows where, and inhabited the fair valley of the Asquamchumauke for long centuries before the advent of the white man.
CHAPTER III.
ABOUT ACTEON-POLITELY CALLED OLD ACTEON-AND WHAT HE AS WELL AS OTHERS SAID OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEMIGEWASSETTS.
IN a little old legendary manuscript history, where the handwriting was decidedly poor and the spelling none of the best, said to have been written by Colonel Obadiah Clement in his younger and palmiest days, are related many and wonderful things, reported to have been told the Colonel by an Indian * who had seen more than a hundred and twenty winters, and who was wont to stop at his inn, about the red men that once resided on the head waters of the Asquamchumauke. We have made the most diligent search for this exceedingly entertaining work, and al- though we found his few poems and a lengthy religious experience written out, and numerous other interesting papers, yet we were never able to lay our hands upon it. But we have no doubt that a work written by Colonel Clement, containing divers and sundry facts, did once exist; which like many another great production is now lost to the world forever. In fact, we have met with one person who claims to have read the identical history, and from him we learned many a fond tale which he said his grandfather's manuscript recounted. These we have serupulously written down, preferring to give them as heard rather than to trick them out in all the beautiful adornings and gay images of rhetoric.
The old Indian, whose name was Acteon, as tradition has it,
* Joseph Clement and James Clement both vouch for the Indian.
In 1726 this same Acteon, at the head of ten Indians, surprised the family of Phillip Durrell, at Kennebunk, Me., burned the house and carried away ten per- sons into captivity. Acteon was a Nipmuck, although there was much dispute as to where he was born .- Drake's Ind. Biog, 336.
C
34
HISTORY OF WARREN.
narrated how that the Pemigewassett tribe were a jovial set of wandering hunters, going from one end of their hunting grounds to the other in a single season, and building for themselves every time they stopped to plant, fish, or hunt fairy wigwams * to protect them from the weather. These mountain Indians had a taste for the beautiful, and their forest halls were elaborately constructed, splendidly ornamented, and furnished with the most artistic skill. A smooth plat of ground was chosen among the embowering trees, near which a bright cold spring gushed up from the white sand, or by which a sparkling brook danced in circling eddies among the rocks. Sometimes they chose the bank of the river, and again the margin of the shining lake.
In building their palaces they were the sole architects and artificers, and, being able to do so many things, they would have been termed in Yankee land jacks-at-all-trades.
Yet they reared no marble or granite halls. They planted numerous sapling poles in the ground, at equal distances from a given point called the centre; these were all bent toward each other till they met and formed a sharp cone, when they were there fastened. Spruce or birch bark was neatly shingled all over this light framework, save a small opening on the top and another about two feet wide and three feet high, on the southeast side. The first was never closed, no doubt being left open that the smoke of the fire, which was always built in the centre of the palace, might easily escape,-perhaps also for ventilation -while the second, which answered for a royal entrance, and was really larger than that through which the dirty philosopher Diogenes entered his tub, was stopped by the shaggy skin of a bear. Mats were placed upon the ground, and these were covered with rich furs. Dishes of birch bark, shells, and gourds; bows and arrow- filled quivers, tomahawks and scalping-knives; spears, paddles, pipes, and tobacco-in fine, all the treasures of mighty warriors, together with the scalps of enemies, were hung, like trophies in old baronial halls, upon the pillars, architraves, cornices, fluted shafts, frie-es, and capitals of the stately pole and bark edifice.t
* The men make the poles or stakes, but the women make and set up, take down, order, and carry the household stuff .- Roger Williams' Key.
+ Deer skins, or those of some other animal, were hung at these apertures to take the place of doors, and were pushed aside when they wished to enter or pass
35
ACTEON. 1166994
The palace of Versailles, the Kremlin of Moscow, or the halls of St. James have not half the beauties these woodland lodges and their surroundings possessed. Fountains and baths in silvery sands, with flowers smiling on the mossy rim; long aisles amid the mighty colonnade of trees ; terraces on the green slopes, planted with flowering shrubs; leafy canopies echoing with the fairy notes of the light-winged winds, or thrilling with the sweetest madri- gals of a thousand birds, with plumage dyed in the brightest rain- bow hues; arches of sky of the sweetest blue, or ebon vaults glowing with diamond stars-all these emparadised the forest lodges of the Pemigewassetts.
But, said old Acteon, although we don't use his exact lan- guage, let no one who has common sense suppose for a moment that these almost ephemeral wigwams were free from the numerous cares that harass and perplex humanity. The Pemigewassetts, like other men, must eat. Their bodies were sensible to the scorching rays of the summer sun and also felt the chilly blast and biting frost. Toil might procure them food, but from heat and cold their palaces afforded only a weak protection.
Still they had one advantage over ordinary civilized mortals: No frowns, scowls, or cross looks on the lovely faces of their squaw-queens ever troubled them on washing or cleaning days. In fact, it required no great outlay of elbow-grease to keep their castles clean, nor coats of whitewash to make them look comely. If a dirty mud-puddle stank before the entrance, or if all the chinks and cranies of the low-arched hall swarmed with fleas and lice, as was frequently the case, all that was necessary to be done was to move out the treasures, apply the torch, let the de- vouring element do its work-and then no forest flower could grow half so quick as a second royal wigwam .*
How did the Pemigewassetts subsist? Old Acteon, in a story-
out. They had gourds of various kinds. The common gourd they cultivated for dippers and musical instruments, use and pleasure. The bow of the Pemigewas- set was usually made of white ash or hemlock. The arrow was pointed with stone; sometimes of fine granite, but oftener of quartz and slate. The spear-head and knife were of the same materials. When bending the bow the string was drawn with three fingers, while the forefinger and thumb held the arrow. In this manner a strong man could bend a very stiff bow, which would throw an arrow with very great velocity. Puddles were made of light bass wood or ash. Pipes were made of freestone.
* The wigwam for the summer was a frail and temporary affair, as it was re- moved from the winter encampment to the fishing place, and from thence to the
36
HISTORY OF WARREN.
telling mood, often related to Colonel Obadiah how it was,-and as they were just like all the rest of the New England Indians their manners and customs can also be learned from the early English Indian historians among them, and perhaps the most entertaining is John Josselyn, Gent., as he was accustomed to sign himself.
Cultivating the land, fishing, fowling, and hunting occupied for the most part their attention.
The braves did not like to work, and the women were com- pelled to strengthen their feeble constitutions by cultivating the wild fields with mattocks of wood, bone, or shell. They planted the maize, scared away the crows, hoed the beans, and trained the flowering vines.
While their women were thus employed and kept out of mis- chief the men would gamble, tell their brave exploits in war, sing their rude songs, engage in wild sports, or eat, smoke, and sleep. When they were tired of this lazy way of existence they would dig out their boats, construct their birchen canoes, * repair the wigwams, and make bows, arrows, spears, and tomahawks.
When they wanted moderate excitement, and did not care to fight, they would engage in fishing, fowling, and hunting. It is said that in the first they used a spear, a net, and rude hooks of bone .; But Old Acteon said the Pemigewassetts and their Nip- muck cousins down the river had no need of such artificial con- trivances. So plenty were the fish in the Merrimack and its trib- utaries that all they had to do was to jump into the water and with their hands throw out a hundred dozen or so, just as their delicate appetites happened to crave.
In the ponds and rivers, at certain seasons, wild-fowl congre- gated in immense flocks. Then fleets of birchen canoes would
planting grounds; then from one field to another, and then again oftentimes from one spot in the field to another, to get rid of the fleas, which were numerous in hot weather, and which insect they call Poppek from its celerity of movement .- Pot- ter's History of Manchester, 47.
* The canoe was made of birch bark: A suitable tree was cut down and the bark peeled off' in one piece. Then a framework of spruce was made and the bark fitted or sewed to it with spruce or other roots. The holes were stopped with pitch. They were really beautiful and graceful structures, and one that weighed less than forty pounds would carry five persons. A man could easily carry one on his shoulders around falls or from place to place. .
t Up higher from the sea, at the falls of great rivers, they used to take salmon, shad, and alewives that used in great quantities, more than cartloads, in the spring to pass up into the fresh water ponds and lakes to spawn .- Ms. H. C. iii. s. vol. v. 30.
37
FISHING AND HUNTING.
surround them, and gradually narrowing their circle they would rapidly huddle them into some narrow creek or cove, and then in wantonness destroy them by thousands.
In hunting they set spring traps* for deer, snares for par- tridges and rabbits, and kulheags for bears, coons, fisher-cats, minks, muskrats, and sable. In early autumn, when moose and deer fed at night on the grassy shores of the lakes and rivers, the Indian hunter, with rude lantern brightly flashing in front, placed in the prow of the canoe, would paddle noiselessly in the dark shadow behind, and when sufficiently near his spell-bound vic- tim would send his feathered shaft on its silent but fatal mission. Every dark night of autumn these spectral fires might be seen gliding like will-o'-the-wisps over the rivers, ponds, and lakes in the Pemigewassett country.
But the most exciting and the most attractive of all were their grand hunting-parties. As they had no hawks, hounds, nor horses, and as it was difficult for a single hunter to capture the larger game, these huntings were necessary. They would select some woody glen or pass of the hills, such as can be found any- where in the East-parte regions, or like the notch of the Oliverian, which they would nearly hedge across by an abattis of trees placed in the form of the letter V-the apex being left slightly open, so that the game could pass through. The skillful spear and bow men stationed themselves near the open apex. Some of the more inexperienced hunters, together with the women and children, would go out on the hillsides, while others stood in a semi-circle across the valley. Then with shouts, and yells, and wild whoops, the moose and deer, bears and wolves, were roused with the smaller game. Narrowing their semicircle, they drove the wild
* In November, 1620, soon after the arrival of the Mayflower, as Stephen Hop- kins, William Bradford and others were walking in the woods they came to a tree where a young sprit was bowed down over a bow and some acorns strewed un- derneath. As Bradford went about it it gave a sudden jerk up and he was imme- diately caught up by his legs and hung dangling in the air .- Potter's Hist. of Man- chester, 42.
They hunt by traps of several sorts. To which purpose after they have ob- served in spring-time and summer the haunt of the deer then about harvest they go ten or twenty together, and sometimes more, and withal if it be not too far, wives and children also, where they build up little hunting houses of barks and rushes, not comparable to their dwelling-houses ; and so each man takes his bounds of two, three, or four miles, where he sets thirty, forty, or fifty traps, and baits them with that food the deer loves, and once in two days he walks his round to view his traps where they lie at what comes at them, for the deer, whom they con- ceive have a divine power in them, will soon smell all and be gone .- Roger Wil- liams' Key, 233.
38
HISTORY OF WARREN.
herd toward the restricted opening of the abattis. The moose and deer were shot, as bounding forward they endeavored to escape. Bears generally took to the trees, but the bowmen brought them down, while the lesser game, confused and crowded, was easily captured by the shouting drivers .*
Such scenes were yearly witnessed in all the Nipmuck coun- try, and especially in the Asquamchumauke valley, where game was so plenty. In this manner they procured a large supply of meat which, smoked, lasted through the winter, as well as an abundance of furs and skins for clothing and blankets.
When the strawberry crimsoned the banks of the Asquam- chumauke, the wild cherry and sugar plum tempted the songster by Berry brook and the Mikaseota; when the raspberry and black - berry grew by the wild maize fields, and the blueberry and huckle- berry ripened on the rocky heights of Owl's Head and Webster Slide and along the shores of the sedgy ponds, rosy-cheeked girls and bright-eyed boys of the Pemigewassett tribe had a joyous time gathering the luscious store.
But when the green corn was ripe enough to roast, and the fishings, or fowlings, or huntings were over; when the squaws had gathered the silken ears, or had cooked the geese, the ducks, and the partridges, or the golden-fleshed salmon or rich fat trout ; or had roasted the moose meat and the venison and bear steaks,- then began the feast and jubilant festivals; then the archways of their forest temples echoed with wild harmonious choruses and deep-resounding music; then on the fire-lit lawn symmetrical forms circled in the mazy green corn dance, the salmon dance, and the hunters' dance; then vows were plighted, nuptials cele- brated, and the old men recounted the legends of the tribe.
Acteon said that the Pemigewassetts never considered Warren -the land upon the head-waters of the Asquamchumauke-as a very good planting ground. Plymouth, and the rich meadows of Coos, were much better. But as a good hunting region, about the lofty Moosilauke, or as containing excellent fishing waters, no better place could be found.
* When they pursue their game, especially deer-which is the general and wonderful plenteous hunting in the country - they pursue in 20, 40, 50, yea 200 or 300 in a company, as I have seen when they drive the woods before them .- Roger Williams' Key, 236.
39
THEIR RELIGION.
The Pemigewassetts like all the rest of the Nipmucks hunted, or fished, or planted, every day in the year. There was no Sun- day for them. Still they were somewhat piously disposed and observed religious rites whenever the spirit moved. They had no God, as we understand Him. Their deities were infinite; but some were superior to others. Every thing that showed life or motion had a divinity, and they saw a god in every blade of springing grass, in the waving of the forest trees; they saw him smiling in the blue river and heard him in the dashing of the great lakes, in the music of the leaping waterfalls, in the sighing of the trickling drops of the grotto, and in the winds shrieking on the cliffs. To them there was a bright Shade dancing in the stars, gliding on the moonbeams, smiling in the rosy dawn of morning, and the last tinges of the setting sun.
Then there was a divinity-a guardian angel-for the trout, the salmon, and the shad; for every kind of fish, for the songster that sang by the wigwam, and the eagle that screamed above the mountains ; for the beaver, the bear, the deer, the moose, and for every creeping thing. This divinity, this " shade," would never die. When its mission on earth was ended it flew to the "happy hunting grounds" of the far southwest, along with the noble shades of the dusky departed Indians, and there it would live forever.
But the great god, Gitchie Manito, of the Pemigewassetts had his home on the mountains, and they heard him in the voices of the storm and the mighty torrent, and in the thunder that mut- tered in the dark gorges and rumbled low over the crests. They saw him in the rosy hue that kindled on the peaks in early morn- ing, or in the sharp flash of the lightning that leaped from the murky clouds.
His home they seldom visited, and the Indian had a bold spirit who dared to climb the bald crest of the mountain.
To him they sacrificed. The first fruits of the chase, the early green maize, the golden salmon, the wild duck, the goose, and the. partridge were their offerings. But, like more modern Christians, they believed in evil spirits as well as good ones, and the former came in for their share and received their portion,-the same as
40
HISTORY OF WARREN.
the ancient Greeks were accustomed to sacrifice five white sheep to the good gods and ten black ones to the bad.
Many other things, as Acteon said, the Pemigewassetts were wont to do, such as to marry and be given in marriage, and now and then obtain a divorce, as is the custom in later days; to die and be buried, to weep and mourn, and then to engage in the pleasant pastime of war, as we shall be most happy to narrate.
* When they come to the grave they lay the dead by the grave's mouth and then all sit down and lament; that I have seen tears run down the cheeks of stoutest captains, as well as little children, in abundance. And after the dead are laid in the grave and sometimes in some parts some goods cast in with them, they have the second great lamentation. And upon the grave is spread the mat the party died on, the dish he eat in, and sometimes a fair coat of skin hung upon the next tree to the grave, which none will touch, but suffer it there to rot with the dead .- Roger Williams' Key, 238.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST ACCOUNT OF THE NIPMUCKS, OR THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF THE PEMIGEWASSETTS, AND OF THEIR UNION WITH OTHER TRIBES ; ALSO HOW A BASHABA WAS KILLED, WITH A DESCRIP- TION OF A VERY POLITE WAY OF TREATING CAPTIVES, AND A FORESHADOWING OF SOMETHING DREADFUL TO HAPPEN.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH deserves honorable mention in this and every other great history. He was the bravest man of that company of adventurers who founded Jamestown, Vir- ginia. He would have been leader whether chosen by the London Company or not, for as a general thing the bravest man in trying times takes the lead. Smith was courageous. There was a sort of a bull-dog crossed with a rat-terrier look in his countenance. He had stamina, gumption-pluck in abundance. With his cocked hat, blue coat and bright buttons, sword, buff-breeches, leggins, shoes and buckles, he presented an imposing appearance, which showed that he was the man for the times and the occasion. He arranged the affairs of the colony, explored the country, met with his Pocahontas adventure, went twice to England and returned, made a map of all the American coast claimed by his sovereign, King James, and then all for glory went to fight in the wars of some eastern prince.
This same Capt. John Smith, many thanks to him, claimed to be something of an author. He explored the coast of New Eng- land, kept a journal, and afterwards published an account of his travels. From him we learn all about this beautiful land-called by some a rock-bound coast-how it was full of bays and inlets, and how bright rivers came down from the mountains seen rising from the far interior forests.
.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
We also learn from him how many and what Indians resided here. He tells us of the cruel Micmacs of Nova Scotia, who, with the New Brunswick Indians, were called Tarentines. They were jolly fighters, and delighted in blood and carnage. He also tells us of the Scotucks, a tribe with a beautiful name, admired by all, and of the Penobscots, who inhabited the Kennebec country, and were celebrated in the songs of the red men as a tall race of noble warriors. He says the Sokokis dwelt on the Saco river and fished at its falls; that the Pascataquas were at the Isles of Shoals, and built handsome wigwams on the shores of the beautiful bay, at Strawberry Bank. The Massachusetts lived at Trimountain, the Paconikicks at Cape Cod, and west were the warlike Pequots and the bloody Narragansetts. In the interior of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were the Nipemucks, and the Noridgewolks were seated on the upper Kennebec and Moosehead lake.
All these tribes were divided into numerous clans, and the famous Capt. Smith tells all their musical, easily pronounced names, such as the Aumughcawgens, Pauhuntanucks, Pocopas- sums, Taughtanakagnets, Mauherosquick, Pasanack, and many others equally pretty, with as much particularity as he would mention the hundred names of all the great and powerful German states.
This voyage of exploration, when Smith made such wonder- ful discoveries, which resulted in his giving us the earliest account of the Nipmucks extant, happened in 1614. At this time the Marquas,* or Mohawks, on the Hudson, were a powerful race of warriors. Their wild maurauding parties frequently crossed the Green mountains and fell on the dwellers of the coast. Then the bloody Tarentines of the east were continually panting for glory and triumphs-not unlike the Romans-and the consequence was that all the above-mentioned tribes were compelled to join in a league for mutual protection.
The Penobscot Indians were at the head of this league. They were a valiant race, and their chief was superior to all of his
* To sum up all concerning the Marquas you may see in the foregoing discourse that they are a stout though cruel people, much addicted to bloodshed and cruelty, very prone to vex and spoil the peaceable Indians .- Gookin, Ms. Hist, Col. 167.
The Mohawks were a powerful tribe and made frequent incursions among the New England Indians,-3 Ms. Hist. Soc. Col. iii. 21, 22,
43
THE BASHABA.
time. Of powerful frame, no Indian could hurl the tomahawk with more precision, could shoot an arrow higher, paddle the canoe faster, or run swifter than himself. In the council he was eloquent, and commanded the closest attention; in the fight his whoop was the loudest and his blow the most deadly; as a medi- cine man he was unequalled, and as a sorcerer all the subtle spirits stood ready to do his bidding. Of commanding appearance, with eagle plumes in his straight black hair, with an eye flashing like lightning, high cheek bones, broad nose and firmly set jaws; with necklace of panthers' claws, and a rattlesnake skin on his tawny red arm; naked to the waist, a robe of fox-skins with tails pen- dant extending to the knee; bear-skin breeches, with flowing hair, and moccasins of moose-hide,-the chief of the Penobscots -the Bashaba of New England-was the idol of his braves.
This great Bashaba had numerous chiefs of his own tribe under him, and so in all the other tribes. Even our Pemigewas- setts had several chiefs, according to Acteon's narrative: a war chief, who led the army of braves to battle; chiefs in the council, who sat as head men of the deliberations,-and every one of these great chiefs acknowledged fealty to the Bashaba.
But this great man did not long survive the visit of Capt. Smith, and then the league went to pieces. How it happened is very interesting to know :
The young warriors of the Tarentines* were thirsting for glory. They feasted in the groves where the wigwams were planted; by their fire they sang the war-song and danced the war- dance in the shadowy night, and all who danced enlisted. As the full moon waned, a score of parties, each numbering from three to forty, were ready for the march. Their outfit was simple. A bow and quiver of arrows, tomahawk, scalping-knife, pipe and tobacco, with pouch of parched corn provided, and they were ready for a month's campaign. They make themselves hideous with black and red paint, they sing the farewell song to their women and children, and they are gone. .
Round the Bay of Fundy, where the foam-crested tide was rushing, across the rivers St. John and St. Croix, for weeks they thread the pathless wilderness towards the southwest. They
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