A character of the province of Mary-land ... also a small treatise on the wilde and naked Indians (or Susquehanokes) of Mary-land, their customs, manners, absurdities, & religion : together with a collection of historical letters / by George Alsop.

A Relation of the Customs, Manners, Absurdities, and Religion of the Susqueha∣nock Indians in and near Mary-Land.

AS the diversities of Languages (since Babels confusion) has made the distinction between people and people, in this Christendom-part of the world; so are they distin∣guished Nation from Nation, by the diversities and confusion of their Speech and Languages here in America: And as every Nation differs in their Laws, Manners and Customs, in Europe, Asia

and Africa, so do they the very same here; That it would be a most intricate and laborious trouble, to run (with a description) through the several Na∣tions of Indians here in America, con∣sidering the innumerableness and diver∣sities of them that dwell on this vast and unmeasured Continent: But rather then I'le be altogether silent, I shall do like the Painter in the Comedy, who being to limne out the Pourtraiture of the Furies, as they severally appeared, set himself behind a Pillar, and between fright and amazement, drew them by guess. Those Indians that I have convers'd withall here in this Province of Mary-Land, and have had any oc∣cular experimental view of either of their Customs, Manners, Religions, and Absurdities, are called by the name of Susquehanocks, being a people lookt upon by the Christian Inhabitants, as the most Noble and Heroick Nation of Indians that dwell upon the confines of America; also are so allowed and

lookt upon by the rest of the Indians, by a submissive and tributary acknow∣ledgement; being a people cast into the mould of a most large and War∣like deportment, the men being for the most part seven foot high in latitude, and in magnitude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch; their voyce large and hollow, as ascending out of a Cave; their gate and behavior strait, stately and majestick, treading on the Earth with as much pride, contempt, and dis∣dain to so sordid a Center, as can be imagined from a creature derived from the same mould and Earth.

Their bodies are cloth'd with no other Armour to defend them from the nipping frosts of a benumbing Win∣ter, or the penetrating and scorching influence of the Sun in a hot Summer, then what Nature gave them when they parted with the dark receptacle of their Mothers womb. They go Men, Women and Children, all naked, only where shame leads them by a natural

instinct to be reservedly modest, there they become cover'd. The formality of Jezabels artificial Glory is much courted and followed by these Indians, only in matter of colours (I conceive) they differ. The Indians paint upon their faces one stroke of red, another of green, another of white, and another of black, so that when they have accom∣plished the Equipage of their Counte∣nance in this trim, they are the only Hieroglyphicks and Representatives of the Furies. Their skins are naturally white, but altered from their originals by the several dyings of Roots and Barks, that they prepare and make use∣ful to metamorphize their hydes into a dark Cinamon brown. The hair of their head is black, long and harsh, but where Nature hath appointed the situa∣tion of it any where else, they divert it (by an antient custom) from its growth, by pulling it up hair by hair by the root in its primitive appearance. Several of them wear divers impressions

on their breasts and armes, as the picture of the Devil, Bears, Tigers, and Panthers, which are imprinted on their several lineaments with much diffi∣culty and pain, with an irrevocable de∣termination of its abiding there: And this they count a badge of Heroick Va∣lour, and the only Ornament due to their Heroes.

These Susquehanock Indians are for the most part great Warriours, and sel∣dom sleep one Summer in the quiet armes of a peaceable Rest, but keep (by their present Power, as well as by their former Conquest) the seve∣ral Nations of Indians round about them, in a forceable obedience and sub∣jection.

Their Government is wrapt up in so various and intricate a Laborynth, that the speculativ'st Artist in the whole World, with his artificial and natural Opticks, cannot see into the rule or sway of these Indians, to distinguish what name of Government to call them by;

though Purchas in his Peregrination be∣tween London and Essex, (which he calls the whole World) will undertake (forsooth) to make a Monarchy of them, but if he had said Anarchy, his word would have pass'd with a better belief. All that ever I could observe in them as to this matter is, that he that is most cruelly Valorous, is ac∣counted the most Noble: Here is very seldom any creeping from a Country Farm, into a Courtly Gallantry, by a sum of money; nor feeing the He∣ralds to put Daggers and Pistols in∣to their Armes, to make the ignorant believe that they are lineally descen∣ded from the house of the Wars and Conquests; he that fights best carries it here.

When they determine to go upon some Design that will and doth re∣quire a Consideration, some six of them get into a corner, and fit in Juncto; and if thought fit, their busi∣ness is made popular, and immedi∣ately

put into action; if not, they make a full stop to it, and are silently reserv'd.

The Warlike Equipage they put themselves in when they prepare for Belona••s March, is with their faces, armes, and breasts confusedly painted, their hair greazed with Bears oyl, and stuck thick with Swans Feathers, with a wreath or Diadem of black and white Beads upon their heads, a small Hatchet, instead of a Cymetre, stuck in their girts behind them, and either with Guns, or Bows and Arrows. In this posture and dress they march out from their Fort, or dwelling, to the number of Forty in a Troop, singing (or rather howling out) the Decades or Warlike exploits of their Ancestors, ranging the wide Woods untill their fury has met with an Enemy worthy of their Re∣venge. What Prisoners fall into their hands by the destiny of War, they treat them very civilly while they re∣main with them abroad, but when they

once return homewards, they then begin to dress them in the habit for death, putting on their heads and armes wreaths of Beads, greazing their hair with fat, some going before, and the rest behind, at equal distance from their Prisoners, bellowing in a strange and confused manner, which is a true presage and fore-runner of de∣struction to their then conquered Enemy.

In this manner of march they con∣tinue till they have brought them to their Barken City, where they deliver them up to those that in cruelty will execute them, without either the legal Judgement of a Council of War, or the benefit of their Clergy at the Common Law. The common and usual deaths they put their Prisoners to, is to bind them to stakes, making a fire some distance from them; then one or other of them, whose Genius delights in the art of Paganish dissecti∣on, with a sharp knife or flint cuts

the Cutis or outermost skin of the brow so deep, untill their nails, or ra∣ther Talons, can fasten themselves firm and secure in, then (with a most rigid jerk) disrobeth the head of skin and hair at one pull, leaving the skull almost as bare as those Monumental Skelitons at Chyrurgions-Hall; but for fear they should get cold by leaving so warm and customary a Cap off, they immediately apply to the skull a Cata∣plasm of hot Embers to keep their Pe∣ricranium warm. While they are thus acting this cruelty on their heads, se∣veral others are preparing pieces of Iron, and barrels of old Guns, which they make red hot, to sear each part and lineament of their bodies, which they perform and act in a most cruel and barbarous manner: And while they are thus in the midst of their tor∣ments and execrable usage, some tear∣ing their skin and hair of their head off by violence, others searing their bodies with hot irons, some are cutting their

flesh off, and eating it before their eyes raw while they are alive; yet all this and much more never makes them lower the Top-gallant sail of their Heroick courage, to beg with a sub∣missive Repentance any indulgent fa∣vour from their persecuting Enemies; but with an undaunted contempt to their cruelty, eye it with so slight and mean a respect, as if it were below them to value what they did, they couragi∣ously (while breath doth libertize them) sing the summary of their Warlike Atchievements.

Now after this cruelty has brought their tormented lives to a period, they immediately fall to butchering of them into parts, distributing the several pieces amongst the Sons of War, to in-tomb the ruines of their deceased Con∣quest in no other Sepulchre then their unsanctified maws; which they with more appetite and desire do eat and digest, then if the best of foods should court their stomachs to participate of

the most restorative Banquet. Yet though they now and then feed upon the Carkesses of their Enemies, this is not a common dyet, but only a parti∣cular dish for the better sort; for there is not a Beast that runs in the Woods of America, but if they can by any means come at him, without any scru∣ple of Conscience they'le fall too (with∣out saying Grace) with a devouring greediness.

As for their Religion, together with their Rites and Ceremonies, they are so absurd and ridiculous, that its al∣most a sin to name them They own no other Deity then the Devil, (solid or profound) but with a kind of a wilde imaginary conjecture, they sup∣pose from their groundless conceits, that the World had a Maker, but where he is that made it, or whether he be living to this day, they know not. The Devil, as I said before, is all the God they own or worship; and that more out of a slavish fear, then

any real Reverence to his Infernal or Diabolical greatness, he forcing them to their Obedience by his rough and rigid dealing with them, often appear∣ing visibly among them to their ter∣rour, bastinadoing them (with cruel menaces) even unto death, and burn∣ing their Fields of Corn and hou∣ses, that the relation thereof makes them tremble themselves when they tell it.

Once in four years they Sacrifice a Childe to him, in an acknowledgement of their firm obedience to all his De∣villish powers, and Hellish commands. The Priests to whom they apply them∣selves in matters of importance and greatest distress, are like those that at∣tended upon the Oracle at Delphos, who by their Magick-spells could com∣mand a pro or con from the Devil when they pleas'd. These Indians oft-times raise great Tempests when they have any weighty matter or design in hand, and by blustering stormes inquire of

their Infernal God (the Devil) How matters shall go with them either in publick or private.

When any among them depart this life, they give him no other intomb∣ment, then to set him upright upon his breech in a hole dug in the Earth some five foot long, and three foot deep, covered over with the Bark of Trees Arch-wise, with his face Du-West, only leaving a hole half a foot square open. They dress him in the same Equipage and Gallantry that he used to be trim'd in when he was alive, and so bury him (if a Soldier) with his Bows, Arrows, and Target, toge∣ther with all the rest of his implements and weapons of War, with a Kettle of Broth and Corn standing before him, lest he should meet with bad quarters in his way. His Kinred and Relations follow him to the Grave, sheath'd in Bears skins for close mourning, with the tayl droyling on the ground, in imitation of our English Solemners,

that think there's nothing like a tayl a Degree in length, to follow the dead Corpse to the Grave with. Here if that snuffling Prolocutor, that waits upon the dead Monuments of the Tombs at Westminster, with his white Rod were there, he might walk from Tomb to Tomb with his, Here lies the Duke of Ferrara and his Dutchess, and never find any decaying vacation, unless it were in the moldering Consumption of his own Lungs. They bury all within the wall or Pallisado'd impalement of their City, or Connadago as they call it. Their houses are low and long, built with the Bark of Trees Arch-wise, standing thick and confusedly together. They are situated a hundred and odd miles distant from the Christian Plan∣tations of Mary-Land, at the head of a River that runs into the Bay of Chaesapike, called by their own name, The Susquehanock River, where they remain and inhabit most part of the Summer time, and seldom remove far

from it, unless it be to subdue any For∣reign Rebellion.

About November the best Hunters draw off to several remote places of the Woods, where they know the Deer, Bear, and Elke useth; there they build them several Cottages, which they call their Winter-quarter, where they remain for the space of three months, untill they have killed up a sufficiency of Provisions to supply their Families with in the Summer.

The Women are the Butchers, Cooks, and Tillers of the ground, the Men think it below the honour of a Masculine, to stoop to any thing but that which their Gun, or Bow and Arrows can command. The Men kill the several Beasts which they meet withall in the Woods, and the Women are the Pack horses to fetch it in upon their backs, fleying and dressing the hydes, (as well as the flesh for provi∣sion) to make them fit for Trading, and which are brought down to the

English at several seasons in the year, to truck and dispose of them for course Blankets, Guns, Powder, and Lead, Beads, small Looking-glasses, Knives, and Razors.

I never observed all the while I was amongst these naked Indians, that ever the Women wore the Breeches, or dared either in look or action predomi∣nate over the Men. They are very con∣stant to their Wives; and let this be spoken to their Heathenish praise, that did they not alter their bodies by their dyings, paintings, and cutting them∣selves, marring those Excellencies that Nature bestowed upon them in their original conceptions and birth, there would be as amiable beauties amongst them, as any Alexandria could afford, when Mark Anthony and Cleopatra dwelt there together. Their Marriages are short and authentique; for after 'tis resolv'd upon by both parties, the Woman sends her intended Husband a Kettle of boyl'd Venison, or Bear; and

he returns in lieu thereof Beaver or Otters Skins, and so their Nuptial Rites are concluded without other Ce∣remony.

Before I bring my Heathenish Story to a period, I have one thing worthy your observation: For as our Grammer Rules have it, Non decet quenquam me ire currentem aut mandantem: It doth not become any man to piss run∣ning or eating. These Pagan men na∣turally observe the same Rule; for they are so far from running, that like a Hare, they squat to the ground as low as they can, while the Women stand bolt up∣right with their armes a Kimbo, per∣forming the same action, in so confident and obscene a posture, as if they had taken their Degrees of Entrance at Venice, and commenced Bawds of Art at Legorne.