USA > Rhode Island > The lands of Rhode Island : as they were known to Caunounicus and Miantunnomu when Roger Williams came in 1636 : an Indian map of the principal locations known to the Nahigansets, and elaborate historical notes > Part 2
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Others were wholly engaged in making wampum ; these latter lived by the sea shores, and were prudent men, gathering shells during the summer, out of which to make wampum during the winter ( Key to Indian Language 179-180). They were acute . traders, suspicious, and subtle, suspecting the integrity of every- body. They were penurious to the last degree, "beating all markets and trying all places to save six pence" (Indian Key 182). They quickly acquired an English willingness to contract debts, with a pronounced English characteristic of never, or hardly ever, paying them. They, in general, preferred to beg than to buy. Mr. Williams says: "I have often seen an Indian with great quantities of money (wampum) about him, beg a knife of an Englishman, who happily hath had never a penny of money." (Key 183.) An incident related by Mrs. Rowlandson, an Indian captive, in 1675. will explain the meaning of Mr. Williams's ex- pression "great quantities of money about him." Mrs. Rowland- son was bought from the Indians who captured her. by Quano- pen, whose wife, or one of them, was the famous Weetamoe ; she spent her entire captivity with Weetamoe. One day one of Quanopen's wives annoyed him. "She ran out of the wigwam and he after her with his money jingling at his knees." (Mrs. Rowlandson's Narrative 47). This money was in the form of belts, and girdles, and so worn by the Sachems. When a trade was made, with his knife the Sachem cut off the necessary amount. Mrs. Rowlandson gives this interesting account of the occupation of this famous Indian woman, with whom she lived and served all this while". "A severe and proud dame she was ; bestowing every day in dressing herself, near as much time as any of
11
WEETAMOE, THE WIFE OF QUANOPEN.
the gentry of the land ; powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with her necklaces, with jewels in her cars and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself her work was to make girdles of wampum, and beads." Concerning these girdles, Mr. Williams says, "Which they make curiously of one, two, three, four and five inches thickness, and more of this money, which, sometimes to the value of ten pounds, and more, they wear about their middle and as a scarf about their shoulders and breast." * * "Yea, the Princes made rich caps and aprons, or "small breeches" of these beads, curiously strung into many forms, and figures ; those black : and white ( money ) finely mixt together." In this paragraph, Mr. Williams uses the word "thickness" in the sense which we use the word "width": a word by the way which Samuel Johnson says "is a low one". There was at Plymouth, the girdle owned by King Philip, which Annawon surrendered to Capt. Church, who thus de- scribed it: "Opening his pack, he pulled out Philip's belt curiously wrought with wampum. being nine inches broad, wrought with black and white wampum, in various figures, and flowers, and pictures of many birds, and beasts : this belt when hung upon Capt. Church's shoulders reached his ancles." ( Church's Entertaining History, 1772. p. 84. ) Let me return a moment, to Weetamoe, and describe her costume at a dance, which preceded a dinner given upon the occasion of the release of Mrs. Rowlandson. There were eight dancers, four men and four squaws ; my master ( Quanopen ) and mistress ( Wee- tamoe) being two. He was dressed in his Holland shirt, with great laces sewed at the tail of it ; his silver buttons, his white stockings. his garters hung round with shillings ; and girdles of wampum upon his head and shoulders. She had a Kersey coat covered with gir- dles of wampum from the loins upwards. Her arms from her elbows to her hands, were covered with bracelets ; there were handfuls of necklaces about her neck ; and several sorts of jewels in her ears. She had fine red stockings, and white shoes, her hair powdered and her face painted red." She was always attended by maids. ( Mrs. Rowlandson's Narrative, pp. 40-46. ) Such characteristics are not wholly unknown even in these days of enlightenment, and prosperity.' Let me relate the strange mutations which so quickly followed, in the lives of these people. Mary Rowlandson was captured at Lan-
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12
THE WRECK OF INDIAN ROYALTY IN 1676.
caster, Mass., on the 10th February. 1676. She was held captive Eleven ( 11) weeks, and Five (5) days, and then released. at New- port. The dinner was given at her release, which was on Wednesday, May 3rd, 1676. In July, King Philip, whose wife was Weetamoe's sister, was with Quanopen, and Weetamoe, near Taunton. They were attacked by Capt. Church, and all scattered. Philip's wife, and son, were captured, and bothi sold as slaves. Quanopen was cap- tured. and taken to Newport, where he was tried, and shot, on the 26th August. Philip fled to Mount Hope, where he was shot, August 12th, and Weetamoe while crossing the Taunton river, on a raft, alone, was drowned. thus came to an end all these people, prac- tically within about three months after Mary Rowlandson was set free.
It must not be overlooked, that these affairs of Quanopen and Weetamoe took place nearly forty years after the time when Roger Williams described the Indians in the manner which I am setting forth. While having no written laws the Narragansetts were scru- pulous in the observance of what we would call their lawful duties to each other. They very strictly observed the land boundary lines. even in their hunting of animals. This strict rule of not encroaching upon an adjoining tribe's lands, is a terrible commentary on the action of the English, in stretching the occupation of lands covered in their Deeds, until all the lands in Rhode Island were covered, and after every Great Sachem had been slaughtered. In their hunting, when a deer was followed beyond the borders of the lands of the hunter's own tribe, and upon the lands of another tribe. for those limits and bounds were well known to every Indian, and there killed, if killed in the water the skin was given as a tribute to the Sachem of that tribe upon whose lands the deer was killed ; but if the animal was slain upon the land. the forequarters were taken to the ruling Sachem ( Key to Indian Language. p. 193). There is an Englishi law covering very much the same ground, concerning wild animals : in it the latin term "ferae naturae" is used to designate animals of a wild nature which belong to any particular individual. only while they are in the power of that individual, or upon his lands. The moment the animal passes from the first individual's lands, that individual's ownership ceases. Concerning other matters
13
HOW THEY MARRIED, AND THE DOWRY.
touching their laws and the observance of the same, and their breaches of what we English call morals, Mr. Williams says: "I could never discern that excess of scandalous sins amongst them which Europe aboundeth with. Drunkenness, and gluttony gen- erally they knew not what sinnes they be: and although they have not so much to restrain them both in respect of a knowledge of God, and the laws of men, as the English have, yet a man shall never hear of such . amongst them as robberies, murthers, adulteries, etc .. as amongst the English." ( Key to the Indian Language 165.) Mrs. Rowlandson relates that she never saw but one drunk, and that was Quanopen, her master. She confirms Mr. Williams, in another re- spect, notwithstanding that she was a writer of a much later date. She relates, "I have been in the midst of those roaring lions, and savage bears, that feared neither God, nor man, nor the devil, by day and by night, alone, and in company ; sleeping, all sorts together, and not one of them ever offered the least abuse of unchastity to me in word or in action." (Mrs. Rowlandson's Captivity 51.) Their treatment of their women is finely touched in another place. It was in connection with the idea of forcing a religion upon them, in ac- cordance with English notions. Roger Williams wrote it. "So did never the Lord Jesus bring any unto his most pure worship, for he abhors, as all men, yea, the very Indians, an unwilling spouse to enter into forced relations." (R. I. Hist. Tract, Ist ser. 14, p. 15.) When an Indian sought a young woman in marriage it was cus- tomary for him to give a dowry to her parents. This sum was more. or less, as the wealth of the proposed husband was great, or little. Five or six fathoms of wampum was a not uncommon dowry ; but in the case the woman sought, was the daughter of a Great Sachem. ten fathoms were sometimes given. If the proposed husband was poor, his friends and neighbors made up the necessary amount by contributions of wampum specifically as a dowry. Mr. Williams gives no form of service. The wife being obtained, a habitation was neces- sary. The name of this habitation the English have written Wigwam. but the Indian had no such word. It is a corruption by the English. of the word Wetu o muck, which means "at Home" or "at their Home". These habitations were usually round, having a diameter on the ground, of. from ten, to fifteen feet, and tapering upward. Poles
14
THEIR DWELLINGS AND FURNITURE.
were cut by the men, bound at the top, and spread apart at the bot- tom. These were covered with mats, made by the women ; inside. embroidered mats were often used, as Mr. Williams says, "making as fair a show amongst them as hangings do with us." Mr. Wil- liams also says that in summer, Birch, and Chestnut bark, was often used for their coverings. An open space at the top permitted the smoke to escape, and the door consisted of a mat. These habitations were sometimes made oblong. instead of round, in which case more open "holes", for chimneys, were left. There were as many fires as holes. In the smaller of these habitations two families would dwell "comfortably and lovingly together". The Indians, like the English, dwelt chiefly in villages, or communities. Mr. Williams says that in a journey in their country, one might count a dozen villages within a walk of twenty miles. These villages were constantly changing in position, never staying long in the same place. No trait was stronger among the Narragansetts than this love of home. They had a word. Nickquenum, which meant "I am going home". Con- cerning it, Mr. Williams says: "It is a solemn word amongst theni. and no man will offer any hindrance to him. who after some absence. is going to visit his family, and useth the word Nickquenum." Commonly their houses are left open day and night : their door is often a hanging mat, which is a species of basket work ; others make slighter doors, of birch bark, or sometimes chestnut ; and still others make them with boards, and nails, which they obtained from the English. These doors can be fastened within by a cord ; or with rude wooden bolts used when the family are away for a short season. The last Indian who leaves the home after fastening the door on the inside, leaves by way of the "chimney", or hole at the top, for the escape of smoke. The Indian word for a "round" house. was Puttuckakaum : for a longer house, for two fires. it was Neesquttow : for a three fire house, it was Shwishcuttow. The furniture of an Indian house, was confined to very few things. They had no chairs. nor tables. The better class used mats for carpets, and sat upon them Baskets were used in place of shelves ; and they made bags, or sacks, from hemp holding five or six bushels, in which were kept their winter food. They had stone mortars, and pestles, with which to pulverize the corn : stone trays ; and stone spoons, stone knives
15
AN INDIAN BATH HOUSE.
and stone axes : after the coming of the English iron and steel were substituted for the stone implements especially among the Sachems. Williams speaks of sending a messenger with a letter from Cawcum- squassuck (Wickford) to Nameug ( New London ) for which he gave the Indian messenger six awls. The Great Chiefs here, Canoni- cus and Miantinomi, possessed iron kettles when Roger Williams first went to see them. He saw ten or twelve of them. They canie probably from Plymouth. There is an Indian word meaning a red copper kettle, showing that they must have heard of such a utensil. But the vessels used commonly by the tribe, as pots, or pans, or kettles were of stone. Recently, in 1885, a ledge of Steatite was uncovered at the foot of Notaquonckanet, in Johnston. This ledge was covered with pots, or pans, in process of manufacture. They were "looted" immediately. Not the slightest effort was made to preserve this curions manufactory. One of the most remarkable con- structions was what we might term an Indian Bath house. Williams gives its name as Pesuponck, which means a "hot house", and thus describes it (Indian Key 211 ) :
"This Hot-house is a kind of little cell, or cave, six or eight foot over, round, made on the side of a hill ( commonly by some rivulet or brook ) : into this frequently the men enter after they have ex- ceedingly heated it with store of wood, laid upon an heape of stones in the middle. When they have taken out the fire, the stones keepe still a great heat : ten, twelve, twenty, more or lesse, enter at once starke naked, leaving their coats, small breeches (or aprons) at the doore, with one to keepe all ; here doe they sit round their hot stones an hour or more taking Tobacco, discoursing and sweating together : which sweating they use for two ends : first to cleanse their skins ; secondly to purge their bodies, which doubtless is a great meanes of preserving them, and recovering them from disease, which by a sweating and some potions they perfectly and speedily cure ; when they come forth ( which is matter of admiration ) I have seen them runne ( summer and winter ) into the brookes, to coole them without the least hurt."
This Indian sweat house is still in use, or was, as recently as 1890, by the western Indians. "Temescal" is the name of it among those tribes nearest to Mexico, and speaking the Spanish language. Book
16
CHILDBIRTHI AND INDIAN MOTHERHOOD.
Notes (v. 10, p. 122) gives an account of this, from which I make this extract : "The sweat house is usually built near the stream on which an Indian village is invariably situated ; a fire is built in the center, and the smoke hole closed, and made tight with mud. Stripped naked the Indians ranged themselves in a circle round the fire : the door is closed and plastered with mud from the outside. The Indians, if it be in a central county. begin a dance, going round and round the fire until they are in a state of profuse perspiration. This is kept up until they are obliged to stop from exhaustion ; then bursting open the door, they plunge into the neighboring stream."
It was not common among the Narragansetts for an Indian to have more than one wife; but to one wife he was not restricted. Quanopen had three wives. The reasons given by themselves for having a plurality of wives were two. First, the desire for riches. "The Indian women." Mr. Williams said, "bring by their labors all the increase of the fields." Hence, it was a matter of business. The more wives, the more property. Things have changed perhaps since those days.
The second reason was, the long sequestration of women during conception, and until the child was born and had been named. The mother nursed the child, which was kept long at the breast, some of them long after they were a year old. Among the Sacheins, and the wealthier Indians, it was common for an Indian mother to main- tain a nurse for the care of her children. Mr. Williams says "they abounded with children, and increased mightly, except a plague. or some lesser sickness appeared among them. In such a case, having no means of combatting disease, they perished wonderfully." Those who listen to tales of Indian Doctors, with Indian remedies, will do well to note this fact.
Of the child bearing of the Indian mother, Williams gives curious particulars thus, it hath pleased God in a wonderful manner to mod- crate that curse. the sorrows of child-bearing, so that ordinarily they have a more speedy, and easy travail, and delivery, than the women of Europe: not that I think God is more gracious to them above other women, but that it follows first from the hardness of their constitutions, in which respect they bear their sorrows easier, and secondly from their extraordinary great labor, even above the labor
17
THE TIES OF CONSANGUINITY.
of men : most of them count it a shame for a woman in travail, to inake complaint ; I have often known, in one quarter of an hour, a woman, merry in the house, and delivered, and merry again, and within two days abroad, and after four, or five days, at work. They have a system of divorce for certain causes, which save one, adultery, Williams does not mention : but he says that he knew many couples who lived twenty. thirty, or forty years together. Marriage was solemnized after consent of the parents, and by publique approba- tion, publiquely, by the contracting parties, not unlike the manner of the Society of Friends in these later years. (Indian Key 168.)
The ties of consanguinity were extremely strong. Mr. Williams gives an instance that he had known ( Indian Key 58) of an Indian whose child had died, who took the loss of the child so grievously that he cut and stabbed himself for grief and sorrow ; the infliction of pain upon oneself for sorrows, or in punishment for wrongs done in the flesh were not unknown to the early Christians. The In- ilan had these words relating to the ties of consangunnity. Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Uncle. Brother, Sister, Cousin. The equivo- lent of Aunt, is not given. This extreme affection for their children makes their children saucy, bold. and undutiful. I once came into a house, and requested some water to drink ; the father bade his son, of some eight years of age, to fetch some : the boy refused, and would not stir; I told the father that I would correct my child if he should disobey me in such a manner. Upon this the father took up a stick. the boy another. with which he flew at his father ; upon my persu- asion the poor father made him smart a little, whereupon he threw down his stick and ran for the water, at which the father admitted the benefit of the correction, and the evil consequences of their too indulgent affections."
The strongest relationship seems to have been the bond of brother- hood, which was held so dear that 'twas common for a brother to pay the debt of a deceased brother : there was a case where an Indian was executed for the crime of murder committed not by himself, but by his brother, a view of the ties of consanguinity, a trifle too close to be comfortable ; here Mr. Williams speaks of a case of murder, a crime which in another place, he says was a crime unknown to the Indians. The case was exceptional.
18
NO BEGGARS AMONG THEM.
"There were no beggars among them, nor fatherless chil- dren unprovided for." ( Key 58.) But again Mr. Williams said : "I have often seen an Indian with great quantities of money about him beg a knife of an Englishman." (Key 183.) Still again Mr. Williams says: "Many of them naturally (espe- cially) princes, or else industrious persons, are rich, and the poor among them will say they want nothing." ( Indian Key 70.) Again, "Cowequetummous," meaning "I bescech you." is a word which they will often use, although there is not one common beggar among them." ( Indian Key 197.)
The money of the Indians consisted of certain parts of two shells. These two varieties were the one white, the other black, "inclining to blue." The white was made from the shell of the Periwinkle, as we now call the shellfish. The outer shell was broken off and the inner shell was cut into small pieces, or beads. in which a hole was bored, whereby the "money" might be collected on a string or sinew. The black was made from the shell we now call a quahaug. In 1643 six of these pieces of white "money" was current here with the English for one penny (Indian Key 173). When stringed it was counted by the fathom-a fathom was in 1643 current at five shillings. English. It had fallen. Mr. Williams says, "from (9) nine and sometimes ( 10) ten shillings per fathom to its then price of five shillings. It was current far into the interior-Mr. Williams says "six hundred miles from New England." Such a thing as the re- demption of it was no more thought of than is the redemption of gold now thought of by us. The fall of 1643 Mr. Williams attributed to the decline in the value of beaver skins in England ( Key 175). Mr. Williams says: "They have as great differ- ences of their 'coyne' as the English have: some of it would not pass current save at a discount. Still more civilized. there was a counterfeit 'coyne' made of a black stone" (Key 181). The white they call wampom. which signifies white: the black they call suckauhock, which signifies black. The relative value Mr. Williams gives as among themselves, as also the English and the Dutch "the black penny is twopence white: the black fathom is double, or two fathom of white" ( Indian Key 176). Mr.
19
THEY WERE GREAT SMOKERS OF TOBACCO.
Williams gives the Indian word Mano as meaning "to cry or bewaile." "This bewailing is very solemn among them morn- ing and evening; sometimes in the night they bewail their lost husbands, wives, children, etc. This lasts a quarter, or a half, or even a whole year" (Key p. 71). In such times "they count it prophane to play, as they much do, or to paint themselves for beauty -but only for mourning, unless they have a dispensation given."
They were great smokers of tobacco, Mr. Williams says, "which some doe not, but they are rare birds" (Key 72). The Narragansetts made stone pipes, but the most extraordinary pipes, he says, "came from the Mauquauwogs" ( Mohawks). "They were two feet long. with men or beasts carved so big or massie that a man may be mortally hurt by one of them" (Key 72). "All the men throughout the country have a tobacco bag, with a pipe in it, hanging at their backs." "They generally all take tobacco, and it is commonly the only plant which men labor in producing. the women managing all the rest ; they say they take tobacco for two causes: first. against the rhaume, which causeth toothache, which they are impatient of : secondly. to revive and refresh them, they drinking nothing but water." That which we call smoking was in those days often called drinking tobacco. But the tobacco here spoken of was not the Virginia plant now used (Indian Key 43). In still another place Mr. Williams says: "Every man hath his pipe of their tobacco" (Indian Key 82). The word "their" indicates pecu- liarity. Mr. Williams gives a word. Nqussutam, meaning "I remove house." It was indeed a curious and interesting prac- tice. "They do upon these occasions remove from thick (wooded) warm valleys where they winter, a little nearer to their summer fields: when 'tis warm then they remove to their fields where they plant corn ; in the middle of summer. because of the abundance of fleas, which the dust of the house breeds. they will fly and remove on a sudden from one part of the field to a fresh place : sometimes having fields a mile or two or many miles asunder, when the work of one field is over they remove house to the other. If death fall in among them. they presently remove to a fresh place. If an enemy approach they
20
THE SUMMER, AND WINTER HOMES,
remove into a thicket or swamp, unless they have some fort to remove into" (Indian Key 74). This suggests the existence, possibly, of the Queen's Fort in 1643. "Sometimes they remove to a hunting house in the end of the year, and forsake it not until the snow lies thick; then will travel home men. women and children through the snow thirtie, yea, fiftie, or sixtie miles: but their great remove is from their summer fields to warm and thick woodie bottoms where they winter. They are quick. In half a day, yea, sometimes at a few hours warning to begone and the house up elsewhere. I once in travel lodged at a house at which in my return I hoped to have lodged again there the next, night; but the house was gone in that interim and I was glad to lodge under a tree." The men make the poles, or stakes ; but the women make and set up, take down, order, and carry the mats and household stuff" ( Indian Key, Narr. Club ed. 74). These daily habits of dress or undress Mr. Williams gives with much detail. "Although they have a beast's skin, or an English mantle on, yet that covers ordinarily but their hinder parts and all the fore- parts, from top to toe, except their secret parts, covered with a little apron, after the pattern of their, and our, first parents; I say all else is open and naked. Their male children goe stark naked. having no apron, until they come to ten or twelve years of age; their female they, in a modest blush, cover with a little apron of an hand breadth from their very birth." This Mr. Williams calls "first. ordinary, and constant nakedness." Their "second" he thus describes as being "when their men, often abroad, and both women and men within doors, leave off their beast's skin, or Eng- lish cloth, and so, excepting their little apron, are wholly naked ; yet but few of the women but will keep their skin, or cloth. though loose, or near to them. ready to gather it up about them. Custom hath used their minds and bodies to it : and in such a freedom from wantonness that I have never seen that wantonness amongst them as with grief I have heard of in Europe." The skins commonly used were of the deer. the beaver, the otter, the raccoon, the wolf. the squirrel and last, but not least, the moose. The deer and moose skins were commonly painted for summer wearing with varieties of forms and colors. The colors known to them Mr. Williams
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