University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER III.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

A correct and detailed view of the origin of societies,
and their progress from one condition or point of wealth,
science and civilization, to another is interesting, even when received
through the dusky medium of history, often times but
poorly and partially written. But when this retrospect of
things past and gone is drawn from the recollections of experience,
the impression which it makes on the heart must be
of the most vivid and lasting kind.

The following history of the state of society, manners and
customs of our forefathers has been drawn from the latter
source; and is given to the world with the knowledge that
many of my cotemporaries are still living, who, as well as
myself, have witnessed all the scenes and events herein described,
and whose memories will speedily detect and expose
any errors it may contain.

The municipal as well as ecclesiastical institutions of society,
whether good or bad, in consequence of their continued
use, give a corresponding cast to the public character of the
society, whose conduct they direct, the more so, because, in
the lapse of time, the observance of them becomes a matter
of conscience.

This observation applies with full force to that influence of
our early land laws which allowed four hundred acres, and no
more, to a settlement right. Many of our first settlers seemed
to regard this amount of the surface of the earth as the allotment
of Divine Providence for one family, and believed that
any attempt to get more would be sinfnl. Most of them,
therefore, contented themselves with that amount; although
they might have evaded the law, which allowed but one settlement
right to any one individual, by taking out the title
papers in the names of others, to be afterwards transferred

to them as if by purchase. Some few, indeed, pursued this
practice; but it was held in detestation.

Owing to the equal distribution of real property directed
by our land laws, and the sterling integrity of our forefathers,
in their observance of them, we have no districts of "sold
land," as it is called, that is, large tracts of lands in the
hands of individuals or companies, who neither sell nor improve
them, as is the case in Lower Canada and the northwestern
part of Pennsylvania. These unsettled tracks make
huge blanks in the population of the country where they exist.

The division lines between those whose lands adjoined, were
generally made in an amicable manner, before any survey of
them was made by the parties concerned. In doing this, they
were guided mainly by the tops of ridges and water courses,
but particularly the former. Hence, the greater number of
farms in the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia bear
a striking resemblance to an amphitheatre. The buildings
occupy a low situation, and the tops of the surrounding hills
are the boundaries of the tract to which the family mansion
belongs.

Our forefathers were fond of farms of this description, because,
as they said, they are attended with this convenience,
"that every thing comes to the house down hill." In the
hilly parts of the State of Ohio, the land having been laid
off in an arbitrary manner, by straight parallel lines, without
regard to hill or dale, the farms present a different aspect
from those on the east side of the river. There the buildings as
frequently occupy the tops of the hills as any other situation.

Our people had become so accustomed to the mode of
"getting land for taking it up," that for a long time it was
generally believed that the land on the west side of the Ohio
would ultimately be disposed of in that way. Hence, almost
the whole tract of country between the Ohio and Muskingum
was parcelled out in tomahawk improvements; but these were
not satisfied with a single four hundred acre tract. Many of
them owned a great number of tracts of the best land, and
thus, in imagination, were as "wealthy as a South Sea dream."
Some of these land jobbers did not content themselves with
marking trees, at the usual height, with the initials of their
names, but climbed up the large beech trees, and cut the letters
in their bark from twenty to forty feet from the ground.
To enable them to identify those trees at a future period, they
made marks on other trees around as references.

The settlement of a new country, in the immediate neighborhood
of an old one, is not attended with much difficulty,
because supplies can be readily obtained from the latter; but
the settlement of a country very remote from any cultivated
region is quite a different thing, because at the outset, food,
raiment, and the implements of husbandry are only obtained
in small supplies, and with great difficulty. The task of
making new establishments in a remote wilderness, in a time
of profound peace, is sufficiently difficult; but when, in addition
to all the unavoidable hardships attendant on this business,
those resulting from an extensive and furious warfare
with savages are superadded; toil, privations and sufferings
are then carried to the full extent of the capacity of men to
endure them.

Such was the wretched condition of our forefathers in
making their settlements here. To all their difficulties and
privations the Indian war was a weighty addition. This
destructive warfare they were compelled to sustain almost
single-handed, because the Revolutionary contest gave full
employment for the military strength and resources on the
east side of the mountains.

The following history of the poverty, labors, sufferings,
manners and customs of our forefathers, will appear like a
collection of "tales of olden times," without any garnish of
language to spoil the original portraits, by giving them shades
of coloring which they did not possess.

I shall follow the order of things as they occurred during
the period of time embraced in these narratives, beginning
with those rude accommodations with which our first adventurers
into this country furnished themselves at the commencement
of their establishments. It will be a homely narrative,
yet valuable on the ground of its being real history.

In this chapter it is my design to give a brief account of
the household furniture and articles of diet which were used
by the first inhabitants of our country. A description of
their cabins and half-faced camps, and their manner of building
them, will be found elsewhere.

The furniture for the table, for several years after the settlement
of this country, consisted of a few pewter dishes,
plates and spoons; but mostly of wooden bowls, trenchers
and noggins. If these last were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled
squashes made up the deficiency.

The iron pots, knives and forks were brought from the East,
with the salt and iron, on pack-horses.

These articles of furniture corresponded very well with the
articles of diet. "Hog and hommy" were proverbial for
the dish of which they were the component parts. Jonny-cake
and pone were, at the outset of the settlements of the
country, the only forms of bread in use for breakfast and
dinner. At supper, milk and mush was the standard dish.
When milk was not plenty, which was often the case, owing
to the scarcity of cattle, or the want of proper pasture for
them, the substantial dish of hominy had to supply the place
of them; much was frequently eaten with sweetened water,
molasses, bear's oil, or the gravy of fried meat.

In our whole display of furniture, the delft, china and
silver were unknown. It did not then, as now, require contributions
from the four quarters of the globe to furnish the
breakfast table, viz: the silver from Mexico; the coffee from
the West Indies; the tea from China; and the delft and porcelain
from Europe or Asia. Yet our homely fare, and unsightly
cabins and furniture produced a hardy race, who planted the
first footsteps of civilization in the immense regions of the
West. Inured to hardships, bravery and labor, from their
early youth, they sustained with manly fortitude the fatigue
of the chase, the campaign and scout, and with strong arms
"turned the wilderness into fruitful fields," and have left to
their descendants the rich inheritance of an immense empire
blessed with peace, and wealth, and prosperity.

The introduction of delft ware was considered by many of
the backwoods' people as a culpable innovation. It was too
easily broken, and the plates of that ware dulled their scalping
and clasp-knives; tea ware was too small for men—they
might do for women and children. Tea and coffee were only
slops, which, in the adage of the day, "did not stick by the
ribs." The idea then prevalent was, that they were only designed
for people of quality, who did not labor, or for the
sick. A genuine backwoodsman would have thought himself
disgraced by showing a fondness for such "slops." Indeed,
many of them have, to this day, very little respect for them.

But passing from the furniture, diet, &c., of our forefathers,
we now come to speak of their dress, which will be
found singular and interesting enough to many of the present
day and generation. Some of our fashionables would scarcely

be able to recognize in the picture, so faithfully and graphically
drawn by our venerable historian, the persons of their
grandsires and dames.

On the frontier, and particularly among those who were
much in the habit of hunting, and going on scouts and campaigns,
the dress of the men was partly Indian and partly
that of civilized nations.

The hunting shirt was universally worn. This was a kind
of loose frock, reaching half-way down the thighs, with large
sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more
when belted. The cape was large, and sometimes fringed
with a ravelled piece of cloth, of a different color from that
of the hunting shirt itself. The bosom of this dress served
as a wallet to hold bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel
of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or
warrior. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered
several purposes, besides that of holding the dress together.
In cold weather, the mittens, and sometimes the bullet-bag
occupied the front part of it. To the right side was suspended
the tomahawk, and to the left the scalping-knife, in its leathern
sheath. The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey,
sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer-skins.
These last were very cold and uncomfortable, in wet weather.
The shirt and jacket were of the common fashion. A pair
of drawers, or breeches and leggins were the dress of the
thighs and legs, a pair of moccasins answered for their feet
much better than shoes. These were made of dressed deerskin.
They were mostly of a single piece, with a gathering
seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom
of the heel, without gathers, as high or a little higher than
the ankle joint. Flaps were left on each side, to reach
some distance up the legs. These were nicely adapted to the
ankles and lower part of the leg by thongs of deer-skin, so
that no dust, gravel, or snow could get within the moccasin.

In cold weather the moccasins were well stuffed with deers'
hair or dry leaves, so as to keep the feet comfortably warm;
but in wet weather it was usually said, that wearing them was
"a decent way of going barefooted;" and such was the fact,
owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they
were made.

Owing to this defective covering of the feet more than to
any other circumstance, the greater number of our hunters

and warriors were afflicted with rheumatism in their limbs.
Of this disease they were all apprehensive in cold or wet weather,
and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire, to prevent
or cure it as well as they could. This practice unquestionably
had a very salutary effect, and prevented many of
them from becoming confirmed cripples in early life.

In the latter years of the Indian war, our young men became
more enamored with the Indian dress. The drawers
were laid aside and the leggins made longer, so as to reach
the upper part of the thigh. The Indian breech-cloth was
adopted. This was a piece of linen or cloth nearly a yard
long, and eight or nine inches broad. This passed under the
belt, before and behind, leaving the ends for flaps hanging
before and behind over the belt. These flaps were sometimes
ornamented with some coarse kind of embroidery work. To
the same belt which secured the breech-cloth, strings, which
supported the long leggins, were attached. When this belt,
as was often the case, passed over the hunting shirt, the
upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked.[18]

The young warrior, instead of being abashed by this nudity,
was proud of his Indian dress. In some few instances
I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress.
Their appearance, however, did not add much to the devotion
of the young ladies.[19]

The linsey coats and bed-gowns, which were the universal
dress of our women in early times, would make a strange figure
at this day.

The writer would say to the ladies of the present day, your
ancestors knew nothing of the ruffles, leghorns, curls, combs,
rings, and other jewels with which their fair daughters now
decorate themselves. Such things were not then to be had.

Many of the younger part of them were pretty well grown
before they ever saw the inside of a store-room, or even
knew there was such a thing, unless by hearsay, and, indeed,
scarcely that.

Instead of the toilet, they had to handle the distaff or
shuttle, the sickle or weeding-hoe, contented if they could
obtain their linsey clothing, and cover their heads with a
sun-bonnet made of six or seven hundred linen.

Truly, this is a contrast to the condition and appearance of
some of their fair descendants, who, with their $500 shawls
and $50 handkerchiefs, would appear oddly enough by the
side of their grand-dams of 1776.

The Fort.—My reader will understand, by this term, not
only a place of defence, but the residence of a small number
of families belonging to the same neighborhood. As the Indian
mode of warfare was an indiscriminate slaughter of all
ages and both sexes, it was as requisite to provide for the
safety of the women and children as for that of the men.

The fort consisted of cabins, blockhouses and stockades.
A range of cabins commonly formed one side at least of the
fort. Divisions, or partitions of logs, separated the cabins
from each other. The walls on the outside were ten or twelve
feet high, the slope of the roof being turned wholly inward.
Very few of these cabins had puncheon floors, the greater
part were earthen.

The blockhouses were built at the angles of the fort. They
projected about two feet beyond the outer walls of the cabins
and stockades. Their upper stories were about eighteen
inches every way larger in dimension than the under one,
leaving an opening at the commencement of the second story,
to prevent the enemy from making a lodgment under their
walls. In some forts, instead of blockhouses the angles of
the fort were furnished with bastions. A large folding gate,
made of thick slabs, nearest the spring, closed the fort. The
stockades, bastions, cabins and blockhouse walls were furnished
with port-holes at proper heights and distances. The
whole of the outside was made completely bullet proof.

It may be truly said that necessity is the mother of invention,
for the whole of this work was made without the aid of
a single nail or spike of iron; and for this reason,—such things
were not to be had.

In some places, less exposed, a single blockhouse, with a
cabin or two, constituted the whole fort.

Such places of refuge may appear very trifling to those
who have been in the habit of seeing the formidable military
garrisons of Europe and America; but they answered the
purpose, as the Indians had no artillery. They seldom attacked
and scarcely ever took one of them.

The families belonging to these forts were so attached to
their own cabins on their farms, that they seldom moved into
their fort in the spring until compelled by some alarm, as they
called it; that is, when it was announced by some murder
that the Indians were in the settlement.

[Dr. Doddridge, in the above, is not sufficiently clear in
his distinction between the several places of defence to which
people resorted on the frontier in times of Indian trouble.

The reader of this work would find himself very much confused
by the several references which are made to forts, blockhouses
and stations, for the varied use of the terms would
imply different structures. The description of Dr. D. does
not imply this difference, and we shall therefore now supply
the omission.

Briefly, we will then state, that a fort was generally a stockade
enclosure, embracing cabins, &c., for the accommodation
of several families. Blockhouses often formed two or more of
its corners.

A station was a parallelogram of cabins, united by palisades,
so as to present a continued wall on the outer side, the
cabin doors opening into a common square, on the inner side.

A blockhouse was a square double-storied structure, the
upper story projecting over the lower about two feet, which
space was left so that the inmates could shoot from above
upon an enemy attempting to climb the walls. But one door
opened into these rude and peculiar structures, and that was
always very strong, so as to defy entrance by any ordinary
means of assault.

The men generally remained above; and many are the tales
of border war wherein a few determined spirits successfully
withstood the combined attacks of hundreds of Indians.

A blockhouse was considered the most safe for a small
number. Those within felt themselves as secure against the
ordinary assaults of their native enemy, as though they had
been in the famous fortress of the Mediterranean.]

Hunting.—This was an important part of the employment
of the early settlers of this country. For some years the
woods supplied them with the greater amount of their subsistence,
and with regard to some families at certain times,
the whole of it; for it was no uncommon thing for families to
live several months without a mouthful of bread. It frequently
happened that there was no breakfast until it was obtained
from the woods. Fur constituted the people's money. They
had nothing else to give in exchange for rifles, salt, and iron,
on the other side of the mountains.

The fall and early part of the winter was the season for
hunting the deer, and the whole of the winter, including part
of the spring, for bears and fur skinned animals. It was a
customary saying, that fur is good during every month in the
name of which the letter R occurs.

As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather
became rainy, accompanied with light snows, these men,
after acting the part of husbandmen, so far as the state of
warfare permitted them to do so, soon began to feel that they
were hunters. They became uneasy at home. Every thing
about them became disagreeable. The house was too warm.
The feather bed too soft; and even the good wife was not
thought, for the time being, a proper companion. The mind
of the hunter was wholly occupied with the camp and chase.

Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit of game, in
which there was nothing of skill and calculation; on the contrary,
the hunter, before he set out in the morning, was informed
by the state of the weather in what situation he might
reasonably expect to meet with his game; whether on the
bottoms, sides, or tops of the hills. In stormy weather, the
deer always seek the most sheltered places, and the leeward
sides of the hills. In rainy weather, when there is not much
wind, they keep in the open woods, on the high ground.

In every situation it was requisite for the hunter to ascertain
the course of the wind, so as to get the leeward of the
game. This he effected by putting his finger in his mouth,
and holding it there until it became warm, then holding it
above his head, the side which first becomes cold shows which
way the wind blows.

As it was requisite, too, for the hunter to know the cardinal
points, he had only to observe the trees to ascertain them.
The bark of an aged tree is thicker and much rougher on the
north than on the south side. The same thing may be said of
the moss, it is much thicker and stronger on the north than
on the south sides of the trees.

The whole business of the hunter consisted of a succession
of intrigues. From morning till night he was on the alert to
gain the wind of his game, and approach them without being
discovered. If he succeeded in killing a deer, he skinned it,
and hung it up out of the reach of the wolves, and immediately
resumed the chase till the close of the evening, when he
bent his course towards his camp; when arrived there he
kindled up his fire, and together with his fellow hunter, cooked
his supper. The supper finished, the adventures of the day
furnished the tales for the evening. The spike buck, the two
and three pronged buck, the doe and barren doe, figured
through their anecdotes with great advantage.

The Wedding.—For a long time after the first settlement
of this country, the inhabitants in general married young.
There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune.
On these accounts, the first impression of love resulted in marriage;
and a family establishment cost but a little labor, and
nothing else.

A description of a wedding from the beginning to the end,
will serve to show the manners of our forefathers, and mark
the grade of civilization which has succeeded to their rude
state of society in the course of a few years.

In the first years of the settlement of the country, a wedding
engaged the attention of a whole neighborhood; and the
frolic was anticipated by old and young with eager expectation.
This is not to be wondered at, when it is told that a
wedding was almost the only gathering which was not accompanied
with the labor of reaping, log-rolling, building a cabin,
or planning some scout or campaign.

On the morning of the wedding-day, the groom and his
attendants assembled at the house of his father, for the purpose
of reaching the home of his bride by noon, which was
the usual time for celebrating the nuptials; and which for
certain reasons must take place before dinner.

Let the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a
store, tailor, or mantuamaker within an hundred miles; and
an assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith or saddler
within an equal distance. The gentlemen dressed in shoe-packs,

moccasins, leather breeches, leggins, linsey hunting
shirts, and all home made. The ladies dressed in linsey petticoats
and linsey or linen bed gowns, coarse shoes, stockings,
handkerchiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. If there were any
buckles, rings, buttons, or ruffles, they were the relics of olden
times; family pieces from parents or grand parents. The
horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or halters,
and pack-saddles, with a bag or blanket thrown over them: a
rope or string as often constituted the girth as a piece of
leather.

The march, in double-file, was often interrupted by the
narrowness and obstructions of our horse-paths, as they were
called, for we had no roads; and these difficulties were often
increased, sometimes by the good, and sometimes by the ill
will of neighbors, by falling trees, and tying grape vines across
the way. Sometimes an ambuscade was formed by the way
side, and an unexpected discharge of several guns took place,
so as to cover the wedding company with smoke. Let the
reader imagine the scene which followed this discharge; the
sudden spring of the horses, the shrieks of the girls, and the
chivalrous bustle of their partners to save them from falling.
Sometimes, in spite of all that could be done to prevent it,
some were thrown to the ground. If a wrist, elbow, or ankle
happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and
little more was thought or said about it.

The ceremony of the marriage preceded the dinner, which
was a substantial back-woods feast of beef, pork, fowls, and
sometimes venison and bear meat, roasted and boiled, with
plenty of potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables. During
the dinner the greatest hilarity always prevailed; although
the table might be a large slab of timber, hewed out with a
broad axe, supported by four sticks set in auger holes; and
the furniture, some old pewter dishes, and plates; the rest,
wooden bowls and trenchers; a few pewter spoons, much battered
about the edges, were to be seen at some tables. The
rest were made of horns. If knives were scarce, the deficiency
was made up by the scalping knives which were carried in
sheaths suspended to the belt of the hunting shirt. Every
man carried one of them.

After dinner the dancing commenced, and generally lasted
till the next morning. The figures of the dances were three
and four handed reels, or square setts, and jigs. The commencement
was always a square four, which was followed by
what was called jiging it off; that is, two of the four would

single out for a jig, and were followed by the remaining
couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what was
called cutting out; that is, when either of the parties became
tired of the dance, on intimation the place was supplied by
some one of the company without any interruption to the
dance. In this way a dance was often continued till the
musician was heartily tired of his situation. Toward the latter
part of the night, if any of the company, through weariness,
attempted to conceal themselves, for the purpose of
sleeping, they were hunted up, paraded on the floor, and the
fiddler ordered to play "Hang out till to-morrow morning."

About nine or ten o'clock, a deputation of the young ladies
stole off the bride, and put her to bed. In doing this, it frequently
happened that they had to ascend a ladder instead of
a pair of stairs, leading from the dining and ball room to the
loft, the floor of which was made of clapboards lying loose.
This ascent, one might think, would put the bride and her
attendants to the blush; but as the foot of the ladder was
commonly behind the door, which was purposely opened for
the occasion, and its rounds at the inner ends were well hung
with hunting shirts, dresses, and other articles of clothing,
the candles being on the opposite side of the house, the exit
of the bride was noticed but by few. This done, a deputation
of young men in like manner stole off the groom, and placed
him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued;
and if seats happened to be scarce, which was often
the case, every young man, when not engaged in the dance,
was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls; and
the offer was sure to be accepted. In the midst of this hilarity
the bride and groom were not forgotten. Pretty late in the
night, some one would remind the company that the new
couple must stand in need of some refreshment: black Betty,
which was the name of the bottle, was called for, and sent up
the ladder; but sometimes black Betty did not go alone, I
have many times seen as much bread, beef, pork and cabbage
sent along, as would afford a good meal for half a dozen
hungry men. The young couple were compelled to eat and
drink, more or less, of whatever was offered.

But to return. It often happened that some neighbors or
relations, not being asked to the wedding, took offence; and
the mode of revenge adopted by them on such occasions, was
that of cutting off the manes, foretops, and tails of the horses
of the wedding company.

On returning to the infare, the order of procession, and the

race for black Betty was the same as before. The feasting
and dancing often lasted several days, at the end of which the
whole company were so exhausted with loss of sleep, that
many days' rest were requisite to fit them to return to their
ordinary labors.

Should I be asked why I have presented this unpleasant
portrait of the rude manners of our forefathers, I, in turn,
would ask my reader, why are you pleased with the histories
of the blood and carnage of battles? Why are you delighted
with the fictions of poetry, the novel and romance? I have
related truth, and only truth, strange as it may seem. I have
depicted a state of society, and manners, which are fast vanishing
from the memory of man, with a view to give the youth
of our country a knowledge of the advantages of civilization,
and to give contentment to the aged, by preventing
them from saying, "that former times were better than the
present."

House Warming.—I will proceed to state the usual manner
of settling a young couple in the world.

A spot was selected on a piece of land belonging to one of
the parents, for their habitation. A day was appointed shortly
after the marriage, for commencing the work of building their
cabin.

The materials for the cabin were mostly prepared on the
first day and sometimes the foundation laid in the evening.
The second day was allotted for the raising.

The cabin being furnished, the ceremony of house warming
took place, before the young couple were permitted to move
into it.

The house warming was a dance of a whole night's continuance,
made up of the relations of the bride and groom,
and their neighbors. On the day following the young couple
took possession of their new premises.

We desire now to say a few words about the sports of the
pioneers. These were such as might be expected among a
people, who, owing to their circumstances, as well as education,
set an higher value on physical than mental endowments,
and on skill in hunting, and bravery in war, than any polite
accomplishment or the fine arts.

Many of the sports of the early settlers of this country,
were imitative of the exercises and stratagems of hunting and
war. Boys were taught the use of the bow and arrow at an
early age; but although they acquired considerable adroitness
in the use of them, so as to kill a bird or squirrel, yet it

appears to me that in the hands of the white people, the
bow and arrow could never be depended upon for warfare or
hunting, unless made and managed in a different manner from
any specimen which I have ever seen.

One important pastime of our boys, was that of imitating
the noise of every bird and beast in the woods. This faculty
was not merely a pastime; but a very necessary part of education,
on account of its utility under certain circumstances.
Imitating the gobbling and other sounds of the wild turkey,
often brought those keen-eyed and ever watchful tenants of
the forest, within the reach of the rifle. The bleating of the
fawn brought its dam to her death in the same way. The
hunter often collected a company of mopish owls to the trees
about his camp, and amused himself with their hoarse screaming.
His howl would raise and obtain responses from a pack
of wolves, so as to inform him of their whereabouts as well to
guard him against their depredation.

This imitative faculty was sometimes requisite as a measure
of precaution in war. The Indians, when scattered about in
a neighborhood, often collected together by imitating turkeys
by day and wolves or owls by night. In similar situations our
people did the same. I have often witnessed the consternation
of a whole neighborhood in consequence of the screeching
of owls. An early and correct use of this imitative faculty,
was considered as an indication that its possessor would
become in due time a good hunter and a valiant warrior.

Throwing the tomahawk was another boyish sport, in which
many acquired considerable skill. The tomahawk, with its
handle of a certain length, will make a given number of
turns within a certain distance; say in five steps, it will
strike with the edge, the handle downwards; at the distance
of seven and a half, it will strike with the edge, the handle
upwards; and so on. A little experience enabled the boy to
measure the distance with his eye, when walking through the
woods, and strike a tree with his tomahawk in any way he
chose.

The athletic sports of running, jumping, and wrestling,
were the pastimes of boys in common with men.

A well grown boy, at the age of twelve or thirteen years,
was furnished with a small rifle and shot pouch. He then
became a fort soldier, and had his port hole assigned him.
Hunting squirrels, turkeys and racoons soon made him expert
in the use of his gun.

Dramatic narrations, chiefly concerning Jack and the

Giant, furnished our young people with another source of
amusement during their leisure hours. Many of those tales
were lengthy, and embraced a considerable range of incident.
—Jack, always the hero of the story, after encountering
many difficulties, and performing many great achievements,
came off conqueror of the Giant.—Many of these stories were
tales of knight errantry, in which some captive virgin was
released from captivity and restored to her lover.

These dramatic narrations concerning Jack and the Giant,
bore a strong resemblance to the poems of Ossian, the story
of the Cyclops and Ulysses in the Odyssy of Homer, and
the tale of the Giant and Greatheart in the Pilgrim's Progress;
they were so arranged, as to the different incidents of
the narration, that they were easily committed to memory.
They certainly have been handed down from generation to
generation, from time immemorial.

Civilization has, indeed, banished the use of those ancient
tales of romantic heroism; but what then? it has substituted
in their place the novel and romance.

Singing was another but not very common amusement
among our first settlers. Their tunes were rude enough to be
sure. Robin Hood furnished a number of our songs; the
balance were mostly tragical. These last were denominated
"love songs about murder." As to cards, dice, backgammon
and other games of chance, we knew nothing about them.
These are amongst the blessed gifts of civilization.

We have drawn upon the abundant store of our earlier
laborer in this interesting field, more fully than was first intended.
As it is important, however, that the present generation
should know exactly how their progenitors lived in the days
that tried men's souls, and as the information given will constitute
an interesting feature in the pages of our work, we
therefore feel justified in extracting as freely as we have done.
It would be in vain for a writer of the present day to attempt
a description of the manners, customs, habits, &c., of the
early settlers. None but one who had lived among them,
shared with their wants and suffered with their privations,
could accurately describe the varied and peculiar life of the old
pioneer. We have every reason to believe that the account of
Dr. Doddridge is in the main correct, and cannot doubt it
will be highly interesting to most of our readers.