In their persons, the Indians were from five to six feet in height, of a reddish and pleasant complexion, with black hair and black eyes. Their whole form was a model of strength and activity. They were unvexed by cares, undebased by rum, and were seldom deformed or sick. They oiled their bodies with the fat of bears and eagles, and tied their hair in a lock on the top of the head, frequently with a snake skin. The dress of the men was the skin of a wolf or bear, tied round the waist, and in winter another thrown over the shoulders, with moccasins, or shoes made of moose hide. The dress of the women was commonly of beaver skin.
Their weapons were bows, arrows, and tomahawks. Their bows were made of walnut, or some other elastic wood, and strung with sinews of deer or moose. Their arrows were made of elder, and feathered with the quills of eagles. They were headed with a long sharp stone, tied to a short stick, which was thrust into the pith of the elder. Their tomahawks were made of a flat stone, sharpened to an edge, with a groove in the middle. This was inserted in a bent walnut stick, the ends of which were tied together.
The red men had few arts, and only such as were requisite to their subsistence. We are, however, indebted to them for snow shoes, scoop nets, and the art of preserving flesh in snow. They subsisted principally by hunting and fishing. Their only objects of cultivation were corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes, which are all indigenous plants. Their season for planting was when the leaves of the white oak were as large as the ear of a mouse. From this observation was formed the rule of the first settlers.
Their women performed all the labour of agriculture, and hoed the corn with large clam shells. Their fields were tended with great care, and the corn was harvested in the ground. When boiled in kernels, it was called samp; when parched and pounded for journeys, it was termed nokehike; and when, pounded and boiled, it was called hominy. They also boiled corn and beans together, which they called succotash. Berries were plenty, especially strawberries "very large ones; some being two inches about," and these they bruised in a mortar, and, mixing them with corn, made strawberry bread. Whortleberries also were employed in the same manner. Some of their dishes are still well known, and highly relished - their samp, their hominy or hasty pudding, their stewed beans or succotash, their parched corn, their boiled and roast ears, and their whortleberry cake.
Indian houses, or wigwams, were rude structures, made of poles set round in the form of a cone, and covered with bark and mats. They were moved about by the women, to the hunting, fishing, and planting grounds. In winter, one great house, built with more care, served for the accommodation of many. They had two kinds of boats, called canoes; the one made of a pine log, twenty to sixty feet in length, burnt and scraped out with shells; the other made of birch bark, very light and elegant. They made fishing lines of wild hemp, equal to the finest twine, and used fish bones for hooks. Their method of catching deer, was by making two fences of trees, nearly a mile in extent, in the form of an angle, with a snare at the place of meeting, in which they frequently took the deer alive. [24]
The Indians appear to have been very fond of amusement. The tribes, even from a great distance, were accustomed to challenge each other, and to assemble upon the Lynn Beach to decide their contests. Here they sometimes passed many days in the exercises of running, leaping, shooting, and other diversions. Before they began their sports, they drew a line in the sand, across which the parties shook hands in evidence of friendship, and sometimes painted their faces, to prevent revenge. A tall pole was then planted in the beach, on which were hung beaver skins, money, and ornaments, for which they contended; and frequently all they were worth was ventured in the play. One of their principal sports was football. Their ball was not much larger than a handball, which they caused to mount into the air with their naked feet. They had another game called puim, which was played by shuffling together fifty or sixty short sticks, and contending for them. Another game was played with five flat pieces of bone, black on one side and white on the other. These were put into a wooden dish, which was struck on the ground, causing the bones to bound aloft, and as they fell white or black the game was decided. During this play, the Indians sat in a circle, making a great noise, by the constant repetition of the word hub, hub, - come, come, - from which it was called (hubble?).
Their money was made of shells gathered on the beaches, and was of two kinds. The one was called wampum peag, or white money, and was made of the twisted part of the conkle, strung together like beads. Six of these passed for a penny, and a fathom of six feet, for about five shillings. The other was called suckauhoc, or black money, and was made of the thick part, or hinge, of the poquahoc clam, bored with a sharp stone. The value of the black money was double that of the white. These shells were also very curiously wrought into pendants, bracelets, and belts of wampum several inches in breadth, with the figures of animals and flowers. Their sachems were profusely adorned with it, and some of the princely females wore caps and aprons worth forty or fifty dollars. It passed for beaver skins, and other commodities, as currently as silver.
The Indians are supposed by some to be the remnants of the long lost ten tribes of Israel; and their existence in tribes, the similarity of some of their customs, and the likeness of many words in their language, seem to favor this opinion. There can be little doubt that they came from the northeastern part of Asia, at some very remote period.
They have ever been distinguished for friendship, justice, magnanimity, and a high sense of honor. They have been represented as insensible and brutish; but with the exception of their revenge, which was dreadful, they were not an insensate race. The old chief who requested permission of the white people to smoke one more whiff before he was slaughtered, was thought to be an unfeeling wretch; but he expressed more than he could have done by the most eloquent speech. The red people received the emigrants in a friendly manner, and taught them how to plant; and when any of the settlers travelled through the woods, they entertained them with more love than compliments, kept them freely many days, and often went ten and even twenty miles to conduct them on their way. On the arrival of the first ship, they are said to have taken it for a winged island, and the discharge of cannon for tbunder. They were astonished at the [25] operation of a windmill; and when they saw a ploughman break up more ground in an hour, than they could open with their shells and sticks in a day, they said he was Hobbamoc, or a demon.
Indians had a rude worship, which, according to their tradition, was once well attended; but, before the arrival of the English it had greatly declined. Their principal powah, or priest, was Passaconaway, who resided at Pentucket, or Haverhill. They believed that after death they should go to the region whence came the pleasant southwest wind, where dwelt their great and benevolent god, Cautontowit, and where they should enjoy perpetual pleasures, and hunting and fishing without weariness.
They endured the most acute pains without a murmur, never laughed loud, and their words and deeds were seldom strangers. They cultivated a kind of natural music, and modulated their voices by the songs of birds. They had war and death songs, and lullabies to quiet their children. The voices of their females, it is said, were exquisitely harmonious; and when heard through the shadowy woods, might easily have been mistaken for the warblings of some melodious birds, or the notes of a fine toned instrument.
Source: Excerpt from Chapter 2 Indians and Early Settlement of Rumney Marsh in
History of Revere by Benjamin Shurtleff, pub. 1937
Scanned, OCRed and edited by David Blackwell 1999 for NEHGS
and the Free Books Online Effort