History of Virginia :: :: University of Virginia Library

What knowledge have we of the copper-colored people who
occupied Virginia when the voyagers of 1607 arrived at the
capes? Captain John Smith, who had inspected the country
within sixty miles of Jamestown more thoroughly than anyone
of the first adventurers, estimated the size of the aboriginal
population within that circuit at five thousand individuals.
Strachey, coming later, and possessing more extensive information
than Smith, through the report of subsequent explorers,
put the number of the aboriginal inhabitants down at
ten thousand; and this was quite probably the correct
enumeration.

The Indians lived dispersed in small villages, which rarely
contained as many as one hundred wigwams. These were rude
structures of saplings tied at the top with hickory withes, and
covered with mats woven of the native grasses. The beds
consisted of reeds supported by poles; the bed clothes, of
skins; and the pillows, of blocks of wood. Powhatan's pillow,
however, was made of leather, and was strung with rows of
beads and mussel-pearls. In summer, the beds were taken
away, and the tenants of the primitive hut, usually twenty or
more in number, slept together on the rush-strewn dirt floor.
Placed about the village were low scaffolds of dry reeds or willows,
and on these the Indians spent much of their leisure gossiping
or fashioning their weapons for war or the chase. Hidden
in the darkest and most silent recesses of the forest stood
the somber Indian temple, a building twenty feet in breadth
and one hundred feet in length, that sheltered the mummies of
defunct werowances and the black images of hideous devils.

The treasure-house of Powhatan was adorned in one corner
with the figure of a dragon; in another, with the figure of a
bear; whilst the remaining two corners were respectively
occupied by the figures of a panther and a gigantic warrior.

The Indians, in preparing the soil for tillage, destroyed the
forest trees by cutting a belt in the bark to stop the passage of
the sap in spring; and when these trees had begun to decay,
fires were kindled about their roots and their trunks burnt
away. The ground chosen for cultivation was always extremely
fertile. The hoe used by the Indians consisted of a long stick,
to which a deer-horn or shoulder-blade or a crooked piece of
wood had been firmly tied. The principal aboriginal crop was
maize, the grains of which, in season, were dropped in shallow
holes four feet apart. Between these holes, beans were planted
and also peas, pumpkin seeds, and the seeds of gourds, cymlins,
and mayapples. The first corn in the field to mature was
consumed as roasting-ears, and the last was reserved for the
winter granary. Before all the maize had been gathered, the
peas and other vegetables had been pulled and either eaten or
stored away for future subsistence. The corn-fields were
protected from the depredations of crows and other winged
marauders by the presence of Indian boys perched upon tall
scaffolds situated here and there in the long ranks of the
growing grain.

The excellence of the Indian methods of cultivation were
demonstrated by their adoption by the colonists. The average
yield to the acre was thought by Hamor to be about two
hundred bushels of maize, peas, beans, and pumpkins. These
several crops were gathered by the Indian women, who used
for that purpose small baskets made of hemp bark or the corn
blade. The contents of these hand-baskets were poured into
larger ones placed here and there about the field. When the
latter were full, they were carried to the village and emptied
of their contents in turn on mats spread out in the sunlight.
So soon as the grain on the ear had become hard, the shuck
was stripped off, and the ear shelled by rubbing two ears

together. The grains thus separated from the husk were
collected in baskets for storage in the corn-houses. At
Kecoughtan, a town situated near the modern Hampton, there
were found three thousand acres of cleared land; and the
greater part of this wide area of ground was planted by the
Indians in maize, interspersed, as was customary, with vegetables.
Extensive fields overgrown with the same crops were
to be seen on the low-grounds of the Chickahominy, Nansemond,
and the Pamunkey. A similar field was situated at
the mouth of the Appomattox which spread over one hundred
acres. A section of this was planted in tobacco.

The only alleviation of the sorrows of the massacre of
1622 in the minds of the colonists was the thought that, thereafter,
all the Indian maize fields, would be open to seizure,
which would relieve the settlers of the heavy labor accompanying
the cutting down of the primæval woods with axe and saw.
Before the happening of that bloody event, purchases of several
hundred bushels of corn at one time had been made in
the different Indian villages. Captain John Smith, in the
course of his several expeditions, had bought many hogsheads
of grain, and after one of his visits to Chickahominy River, he
reported that he could have loaded a frigate with the quantity
easily obtainable had one been at his disposal. On a single
occasion, Captain Argall brought back to Jamestown from the
Potomac one thousand bushels of shelled maize.

Joined on to every Indian corn-field was a patch of growing
tobacco. The size to which this weed attained in aboriginal
Virginia fell short of what had been often noticed in the fertile
West Indies, but it usually sprang up to the height of at least
three feet.

The use of the cured leaf by the Indians was not limited to
the pipe. It was supposed by them to possess medicinal qualities.
It was also dropped on sacrificial fires in the form of
dust; or it was sown to the wind when a drought had parched
the landscape or a storm was brewing; or it was sprinkled
liberally over the weirs when schools of fish were running; or

it was tossed in the air when the warriors returned from a
successful excursion. Tobacco was one of the valuable articles
reserved for the enjoyment of the Kings when translated by
death to the Happy Hunting Ground. The pipe used by the
Indians was sometimes a yard in length, and so tough in fibre
and so heavy in weight that it was capable of braining a man if
directed to that purpose. It was the most sacred symbol of
peace. When the first band of explorers reached the village of
Appomattox, they found themselves face to face with the werowance
holding a bow and arrow in one hand and a pipe filled
with tobacco in the other. This meant that the strangers could
make their choice between war or peace. Handsful of tobacco
always accompanied the gifts of food which the Indians made
to the voyagers. It was associated in these presentations with
nuts, mulberries, strawberries, and raspberries, as if it, as
well as they, were looked upon as a relish.

The Indians used for bread, not only the grains of maize,
but also the seed of sunflowers and mattoom, and the roots of
the tuckahoe plant. So abundant were these roots that it was
said that enough of them could be gathered in one day by one
person to furnish him a subsistence for a week. The persimmon
was dried in hurdles and stored away like preserved
dates. Oil was compressed from the kernels of acorns and
walnuts. The nuts of the hickory tree provided a liquor that
was employed either for quenching the thirst or for giving a
sharp flavor to a mess of boiled peas, beans, maize, and pumpkins.
The large gourd was converted into a water bucket, and
the small into a dipper. The Indians were more inclined to
drink out of ponds than out of running brooks. They showed
a keen distaste for onions and hazelnuts.

Besides the grains and vegetables of the corn-field, they
possessed other means of subsistence. The first of these was
fishing. Weirs constructed of small sticks or reeds, held
together with strips of oak, were placed at the mouths of all
the minor streams; and at the foot of every fall in the large
rivers, a fish trap, shaped like a cone, and divided into a series

An Indian Village

of communicating chambers, was tied to the rocks. The orifice
in each chamber was barbed to prevent the return of the
captive on his track.

The principal instrument of the Indians in the chase was
the bow and arrow. The bow was constructed of locust or
hazel wood, and cut and scraped into the proper shape with a
shell. The arrow was made of a tough reed, and it was tipped
with a sharp piece of flint, or with the spur of a wild turkey-cock,
or with the bill of one of the other larger birds. The
string was of cured stag gut. The shaft was balanced with
a feather of the eagle, hawk, or buzzard. The quiver was
manufactured of fox or wolf skin, with the bushy tail retained.
Using this primitive weapon, the Indian hunter was able to
kill a bird or animal one hundred and twenty yards away, or
drive an arrow-head into a target that was hardly penetrable
by a pistol ball.

There were several methods used by the Indians to capture
game. The most successful, perhaps, was the setting of a
torch to the dead leaves and brush at the entrance to narrow
peninsulas. When the deer, bear, or other wild animals, pent
up in the threatened area, took to the water in order to escape
the flames, they were seized or slain by the hunters, who had
been lying in ambush in the shadow of the banks. Sometimes,
the hunters were aided in getting right up to a herd of deer
by disguising themselves in the skins of these animals, which
were observed by the victims without suspicion. In the month
of May, the occupants of a village would desert their wigwams
for a time and plunge deeper and deeper into the
primæval woods until they had reached the hunting lodges
which they had, in some previous season, erected in a secluded
spot; and here they remained during several weeks in busy
pursuit of the beasts of the vast forests. The women and
children took an active part in these annual excursions.

The Indians obtained no food from domestic fowls, but
they possessed as a substitute the meat of bears, deer, squirrels,
hares, raccoons, and opossums, and the flesh of wild ducks,

geese, and swans. Before cooking, they removed the entrails
of all varieties of game, but allowed the scales of fish to remain,
however large their size. The meats were either laid directly
on the face of the hot coals, or they were placed in a frame of
sticks supported above the flames by small posts. Fish were
prepared for the platter by piercing them with sharpened
sticks, and then exposing the flesh to the heat of the fire from
the side. The pot was used when fish, flesh, and vegetables
were messed together; and it was also the receptacle whenever
oysters, mussels, and corn-meal were to be converted into a
broth. Corn meal, however, was ordinarily made up into
cakes, and in that form laid on the glowing coals, or under the
hot ashes, until the process of cooking was completed. It was
also eaten in the form of hominy, a method of preparing it for
the palate which was soon adopted by the colonists, and has
come down to our own day.

All the early chroniclers testify to the lavish feasts with
which every visit to an Indian village was celebrated. When
Captain John Smith arrived at Werowocomico in 1608, the
squaws spread out before him and his companions a primitive
banquet consisting of fruit deposited in baskets, fish, wild fowl,
and venison resting on wooden platters, and beans and peas
in similar dishes, in such quantities that the appetites of
twenty persons could easily have been appeased with it all.
He was offered a bunch of feathers to serve as a napkin. During
a visit which Hamor paid to Powhatan, there was set
before him for breakfast a mess of boiled peas and beans in
such volume that a dozen famished men could have been satisfied
by the contents of the pot. Only an hour afterwards,
platters of boiled fish were placed before him for consumption;
and an hour later still, platters of roasted oysters and
crabs. Soon the hunters returned with a buck, several does,
and a fat turkey-cock. Before night had fallen, the last
remnant of all this food had been devoured. Previous to
his departure, on the following morning, Hamor breakfasted
on a broiled turkey; and another broiled turkey and three

baskets of bread were given him to satisfy his appetite when
he should be on his way to Jamestown. During the first
Christmas season, Captain John Smith and his companions
were detained at Kecoughtan by adverse winds. Their time
was passed with the savages, and they said afterwards that
they were feasted with as excellent oysters, as good fish and
wild fowl, and as nourishing bread, and warmed by as roaring
fires, as if they had been stopping in some prosperous community
of old England.

In winter, the Indian warrior used untanned deer skins for
clothes; but, in summer, he was content to confine his garments
to a belt of leather, in which a tuft of grass or leaves
was tucked both before and behind. Some of the men were
in possession of cloaks made of the skins of the squirrel, raccoon,
and otter. Powhatan wore a mantle of raccoon skins,
with the glossy tails hanging down all around his body. The
person of the priest was adorned with a mantle of weasel
skins intermingled with the skins of snakes. The snake skins
and weasel tails were drawn up over his head and tied in a
knot, from which the ends dangled on all sides like the strands
of a large tassel. The Indians were in the habit of using oil
to give a gloss to their own skins, or to hold the soft down of
the blue birds, red birds, and white herons, which they had
applied to the sticky surface. The women were clothed in
garments of skin skillfully dressed and tastefully fringed and
shagged at the skirt; and these vestments were also embellished
with white beads and links of copper, and decorated
with images of beasts, birds, tortoises, fruits, and flowers.
They too wore mantles of the feathers of ducks, swans, geese,
and turkeys, dyed red or blue, as the fancy suggested. In
their hunting expeditions, members of both sexes donned
leather breeches and stockings.

The several tribes differed in their physical aspect. The
Susquehannocks were the most imposing in size. The calf of
the leg of one individual among that people measured by Captain
John Smith was three quarters of a yard in circumference.

On the other hand, the subjects of Powhatan were small in
figure. The warrior, however, whether large or diminutive
in frame, was erect in bearing and alert in movement. His
beard was thin and straggling; his hair, black, coarse, and
long. Not a gray or blue eye was to be found among the
Indians. They were robust in health, and often survived to a
great age. In case of sickness, they relied for cure only on
concoctions of the indigenous barks and roots, and on the
virtue of the sweating-house. They were firm believers in
magic and incantation, and the priest was a personage of
extraordinary importance in those wild-wood communities.

In the Indian calendar, the year was divided into five seasons
according to its varying character. The first was known
as Cattapeuk, that is to say, the season of blossoms; the second
as Cohettayough, the season when the sun rode highest in the
heavens; the third as Nepanough, the season when the ears
of maize were sufficiently mature to be roasted; the fourth
as Taquetock, the season when the leaves had begun to fall
and the grain to harden for the harvest; and the fifth as
Cohonk, the season when the wild geese appeared in the sky
in long lines in their migration from the North, uttering as
they flew majestically overhead their deep cry, which suggested
the name for those wintry months.