The Story of American History Part 5

Although the family slept in the one big room, we should not have seen any bed in the daytime. It was turned up against the wall, and fastened to the side of the cabin. At night it was turned down and nearly filled the room. None of the beds were very soft, for they were filled with hay or leaves. By and by, after they had shot enough wild fowl, they had feather beds.

=64. Around the Dinner Table.=--When the little family gathered around the table for dinner, there was before them neither an abundance nor a variety of food. There was no milk, b.u.t.ter, nor cheese; for there was no cow in the colony. It was four years before a cow was brought over from England. They had no eggs, no beef nor pork nor lamb, and of course no vegetables yet, nor any nice white bread. The provisions they brought in the s.h.i.+p were partly spoiled, and were nearly used up. So they had to get food as best they could.

Now and then the colonists killed some game, but they had to be careful and not waste their powder and shot. One day they shot and cooked an eagle; but, as Bradford wrote in his journal, it was "woefully tough."

They could not often shoot a bear or a deer. They obtained some corn of the Indians by trading such trifles as they could best spare. The records tell us that once a Pilgrim bartered a little dog for a peck of corn.

=65. The Daily Fare becomes scant; Hards.h.i.+ps increased by Hunger.=--By and by all the other food failed, so that their main article of diet was corn. This they made into meal by pounding it on smooth stones. But even this supply from the Indians was often scanty and uncertain, so that at times they were without it until, after a year or two, they raised their own crops.

The rest of their provisions they obtained from the ocean--clams, lobsters, and various kinds of fish. But their fis.h.i.+ng boat was so frail and their hooks and nets were so poor that this source many times disappointed them.

Thus, the two articles on which they chiefly depended being Indian corn and sea-food, they were sometimes entirely dest.i.tute, unable to obtain either.

What a condition! "I have seen men," wrote one of the Pilgrims, "stagger by reason of faintness for want of food; they knew not at night where to have a bit in the morning." They were so badly off that if it were possible for a friend to visit them, the best they could offer him would be a piece of fish and some water!

[Ill.u.s.tration: PILGRIMS WATCHING THE RETURN OF THE MAYFLOWER.]

Such was the daily living of the first Pilgrim settlers in this country.

Such were a few of the hards.h.i.+ps they bravely and patiently endured. And yet, strange to say, when the Mayflower sailed for home in the early spring, as we have before stated, not one of these stout-hearted men and women returned in her to England.

CHAPTER VI.

THE INDIANS AND HOW THEY LIVED.

=66. How the Indians looked; the Clothes they wore.=--Let us now learn a few things about the Indians as they were before their habits and mode of life had been changed by contact with white men.

The heads of the Indians were always bare. It was customary for them to allow one tuft of hair to grow longer than the rest. This was called the "scalp lock." When a fight had been finished, this lock served as a convenience to the victor. It enabled him to remove handily the scalp from the head of a dead enemy, and to carry it easily away as a trophy of triumph.

The Indians had the curious custom of smearing their faces and their bodies with red paint. On great occasions, such as the holding of a tribal council or a war dance, they painted themselves a more brilliant red. The bright color was believed to give a formidable aspect. They decked themselves with queer ornaments of many sorts. Around their necks they wore strings of s.h.i.+ning stones, bits of mica, baubles made of copper, and animals' teeth highly polished. Feathers were held in great esteem. Success in war ent.i.tled the victor to wear eagles' feathers as a mark of the greatest distinction. In this love of finery the men were fully as vain as the women.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LONG HOUSE OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS.]

The clothing of the Indians was, for the most part, fas.h.i.+oned out of the dried skins of animals, such as the deer and the beaver, whose flesh had been used for food. Unlike that of civilized people, this clothing was seldom or never changed, but was worn till it was worn out. If not unwashable, it was rarely washed. The "n.o.ble red man" was not a model of cleanliness. He had never heard of soap.

=67. What the Indians had to eat.=--The food of the Indians varied with the place and the season, but game and fish were the princ.i.p.al articles.

Their game was chiefly deer, bears, moose, racc.o.o.ns, foxes, wild geese, and wild turkeys. Having no salt nor spices, no bread nor potatoes, neither milk, b.u.t.ter, nor cheese, their living must have lacked such relish as we give to ours.

In the settled villages the Indians cultivated rude gardens. In these they raised corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco; but, considering the crudeness of their tools, we must suppose that the crops were scanty.

The squaws used to cook corn and beans together, making _succotash_.

Both the dish and the name have come to us from the Indians. Green corn they used to roast in hot ashes, very much as we sometimes do now at clambakes or other outings. Meat they commonly cooked by thrusting a stick through it and holding it over the fire; but they sometimes boiled it in rude earthen pots. Fish they broiled on a frame of sticks.

=68. The Indian's Struggle for a Living.=--The princ.i.p.al work of the Indians was to get food enough. They did not hunt or fish merely for sport, as men and boys of our time are apt to do. To the Indian, hunting was the serious task of providing for his family and himself. At times the supply became very slight. It was especially so in the winter. Then they really suffered from hunger, and were forced to eat ground-nuts and acorns--anything to keep alive. But when they had had good hunting they would eat enormously. At times, when game was scarce, different tribes would have savage fights for the best hunting ground.

Their only drink was water. After the white man came they learned the use of rum and whiskey, and would pay a great price for what they called "fire water." On the other hand, the white man learned from the Indian the use of tobacco. It was a bad bargain both ways.

=69. Hards.h.i.+ps of the Indian Women.=--The Indian warriors occupied themselves with war and the chase. They looked upon ordinary labor as degrading, and fit only for women. These they treated very much as slaves. The squaw did all the everyday work--building the wigwam, raising the crops, making the clothes, and weaving bark mats for the beds. On journeys the women carried their infants, or papooses, on their backs.

With some tribes woman held a higher place. She had a considerable degree of influence in public matters, and often decided the question of peace or war. She could even drive away her husband if he failed to bring home game or fish enough for the family.

=70. The Indians' Weapons.=--Indian wars were conducted in a manner entirely different from that of civilized nations. The weapons were the bow and arrow, the hatchet of sharp stone, and the war club. The bowstring was made of Indian hemp or the sinews of the deer. The arrowhead was of sharp flint or bone; its point was often made of an eagle's claw or the spur of a wild turkey. The stone hatchet, called "tomahawk," had a long handle and was a powerful weapon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN WAR CLUB.]

After the Indians had seen the white man's guns, hatchets, and knives, and could obtain such things for themselves, the use of their own rude weapons was abandoned.

Gunpowder was for a long time a mystery to the Indians. At first they thought that it grew from the ground, like the tobacco plant. It is said they once sowed some of it in the spring, expecting to see it take root and grow. They supposed every white person knew how to make it; and so, once upon a time, when they had captured two young girls, they tried to force them to make a supply of it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN STONE HATCHET.]

=71. How the Indians fought.=--In battle, Indians did not come out in fair and open fight, as is the custom of white men; but their skill consisted in surprises, shooting from behind rocks and trees, skulking around at night, and killing the enemy asleep. Captives in war were frequently tortured in the most barbarous ways; sometimes they were tied to trees and were slowly burned to death or were shot. But it was a high standard of Indian valor to bear the sharpest pain without flinching, with never a groan or any sign of suffering.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN CALUMET OR PIPE OF PEACE.]

The Indians, believing as they did that all animals were protecting or unfriendly spirits, often addressed them as if they were human beings.

The story is told of an Indian who shot at a large bear and wounded him.

The bear fell and lay whining and groaning. The Indian went up to him and said: "Bear, you are a coward, and no warrior. You know that your tribe and mine are at war, and that yours began it. If you had wounded me, I would not have uttered a sound; and yet you sit here and cry and disgrace your tribe."

=72. The Use made of Wampum, or Indian Money.=--Indians had little use for gold or silver, but they had something in its place, which they called "wampum." This was made of bits of seash.e.l.ls like beads. The pieces had a hole in the center, so that they could be strung in long strips or made into belts.

Wampum was used for a long time as regular money or the medium of exchange between the Indians and the whites, and even between one white and another. Strings of it were pa.s.sed around for purposes of trade, as we now use coins of silver and gold. But after a while, as seash.e.l.ls became plentiful, wampum became almost worthless, and then the Indians were glad enough to take the white man's silver money.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TREATY-BELT MADE OF WAMPUM.]

Among some of the tribes, bands of wampum were woven into ornamental belts, and these were decorated with colored beads combined into striking figures and designs. The wampum belts were often given as a pledge that the giver would faithfully live up to certain terms of a treaty.

=73. Indian Tools and Snowshoes.=--As the Indians had so little to work with--no iron for knives, nor tools of any kind except flinty stones made sharp and called "hatchets"--it is wonderful how ingenious they were in supplying their personal wants. They kneaded in oil and softened with heat the furry skins of animals, and from these they made excellent garments for winter. From dried deerskins they fas.h.i.+oned a sort of soft serviceable shoe called the "moccasin." This was wrought from a single piece of the leather. It fitted snugly to the foot and was tied with strips of buckskin at the ankle.

The danger of starving in the winter when the snow was deep led the Indians to invent the snowshoe. This was made of a light framework of ash, filled with meshes of rawhide, thus presenting a broad surface to the snow. By this contrivance the Indians could travel in winter as easily as in summer.

It is said that an Indian upon snowshoes could easily travel forty miles a day. Strangely enough, all the cunning of the white man has never availed to make anything better for such a purpose.

=74. Indians as Hunters.=--The Indian contrived ingenious traps for catching bears, moose, and other sorts of game. One of these devices consisted of a long and heavy log, carefully balanced upon a post placed upright in the ground, with a log attached to one end of it. The roving animal would approach, and by jumping attempt to get the bait that was so attractive. The movement would cause the log to fall, and thus, perhaps, the creature would be killed.

Fish were killed by shooting them with the arrow as they swam; or they were caught with hooks of bone, or taken in rivers by means of a weir, or brush fence, fixed across the stream. Sometimes they were taken in nets woven from the bark of the elm, and in traps of wickerwork not unlike the lobster pots now in use.

The Indians had a remarkable faculty, resembling that of the ventriloquist, whereby they could imitate the voices of woodland creatures--the hoot of the owl, the cry of the wild turkey, the howl of the wolf. By this means they could readily attract animals of various species to a spot where they might easily kill them. Even hostile Indians out searching for game were in this manner sometimes allured to the place of danger.

=75. Story ill.u.s.trating the Indian's Keen Observation.=--It is marvelous what quick eyes the Indian had to see almost instantly things that other persons would never see at all. The story is often told of an Indian who returned one day to his wigwam and found that a large piece of venison had been stolen. He looked carefully around, and then started off for the thief. He asked the first man he met if he had seen a little old white man with a short gun and a small dog with a short tail. Afterwards he explained how he learned all these points. He said he knew the thief was little, for he had to pile up some stones to reach the venison; old, by his short steps; white, by the toes of his tracks turning out; that he had a short gun, for when it fell to the ground from where it leaned against the tree, it made a short mark in the dirt. He knew by the dog's track that the dog was small; he knew that the dog had a short tail, because a short groove had been "wiggled" in the dust where the dog had sat while his master was stealing the meat!

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN INDIAN CAMP OF TO-DAY IN THE FAR WEST.]

=76. The Indians were Cruel, Cunning, and Revengeful.=--As to character, the Indian had, like all the rest of us, a good and a bad side. Though usually silent and moody in the presence of white men, travelers tell us that the Indians had lively games when by themselves, and enjoyed fun and frolic and story-telling like other people. They were crafty and treacherous, as well they might be from their constant warfare.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN ATTACK ON A SETTLER'S HOUSE.]