friend Wequash lay very sick. I desired to see him; and himself was pleased to be my guide two miles, where Wequash lay.

Amongst other discourse concerning his sickness and death, in which he freely bequeathed his son to Mr. Fenwick, I closed with him concerning his soul. He told me, that some two or three years before, he had lodged at my house, where I acquainted him with the condition of all mankind, and his own in particular; how God created man and all things; how man fell from God, and his present enmity against God, and the wrath of God against him until repentance: said he, "Your words were never out of my heart to this present ;" and said he, “ Me much pray to Jesus Christ." I told him, so did many English, French, and Dutch, who had never turned to God, nor loved him. He replied in broken English: "Me so big naughty heart: me heart all one stone!" Savoury expressions, using to breathe from compunct and broken hearts, and a sense of inward hardness and unbrokenness. I had many discourses with him in his life; but this was the sum of our last parting, until our general meeting.

KEY INTO THE LANGUAGE OF THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND.

CHAP. I.

Of Salutation.

HE natives are of two sorts, as the English are some more rude

Tand clownish, who are not so apt to salute, but upon salutation,

re-salute lovingly. Others, and the general, are sober and grave, and yet cheerful in a mean, and as ready to begin a salutation as to re-saluté, which yet the English generally begin, out of a desire to civilize them.

What cheer, Netop? is the general salutation of all English toward them. Netop is friend; Netompauog, friends.

They are exceedingly delighted with salutations in their own language.

Cowaunckamish; my service to you. This word, upon special salutations, they use; and upon some offence conceived by the Sachim, or prince, against any, I have seen the party do obeisance, by stroking the prince upon both his shoulders, and using this word, Cowaunkamish, or Cuckquenamish; I pray your favour.

Otan ; a town. Otanick noteshem; I came from the town. In the Narroganset coutnty, which is the chief people in the land, a man shall come to many towns, some bigger, some lesser, it may be a dozen, in twenty miles travel.

They call Old England Acawmenoakit, which is as much as from the land on t'other side. Hardly are they brought to believe that that water is three thousand English miles over.

Wetu; a house. Matnowetuomeno; I have no house. As commonly a single person hath no house, so after the death of a husband or wife,

they often break up house, and live here and there awhile with friends, to allay their excessive sorrow. Wesuonck; a name. Matnowesuonckane; I have no name. Obscure and mean persons amongst them have no names. Again because they abhor to name the dead (death being the king of terrours to all natural men; and though the natives hold the soul to live forever, yet not holding a resurrection, they die and mourn without hope; in that respect, I say) if any of their Sachims or neighbours die, they lay down those names as dead.

This is one incivility amongst the more rustical sort, not to call each other by their names, but Keen; you: Ewo; he.

They are remarkably free and courteous, to invite all strangers into their houses; and if they come to them upon any occasion, they request them to come in, if they come not in of themselves.

I have acknowledged amongst them an heart sensible of kindnesses, and have reaped kindness again from many, seven years after, when I myself had forgotten.

CHAP. II.

Of Eating and Entertainment.

harched wholesome

food, which they eat with a little water, hot or cold. I have travelled with near two hundred of them at once, near a hundred miles through the woods, every man carrying a little basket of this at his back, and sometimes, in a hollow leather girdle about his middle, sufficient for a man three or four days. With this ready provision, and their bow and arrows, are they ready for war, and travel at an hour's warning. With a spoonful of this meal, and a spoonful of water from the brook, have I made many a good dinner and supper.

Aupummineanash; the parched corn. Aupuminea-nawsaump; the parched meal boiled with water at their houses, which is the wholesomest diet they have. Msickquatash; boiled corn whole. Manusquussedash, beans. Nawsaump; a kind of meal pottage unparched. From this the English call their samp, which is the Indian corn, beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold, with milk or butter; which are mercies beyond the natives' plain water, and which is a dish exceeding wholesome for the English bodies.

They generally all take tobacco; and it is commonly the only plant which men labour in; the women managing all the rest. They say they take tobacco for two causes: first, against the rheum, which causeth the tooth-ake, which they are impatient of: secondly, to revive and refresh them, they drinking nothing but water.

Whomsoever cometh in, when they are eating, they offer them to eat of that which they have, though but little enough prepared for

themselves. If any provision of fish or flesh come in, they make their neighbours partakers with them. If any stranger come in, they presently give him to eat of what they have. Many a time, and at all times of the night, as I have fallen in travel upon their houses, when nothing hath been ready, have themselves and their wives risen to prepare me some refreshing.

Mihtukmecha kick; Tree-eaters: a people so called (living between three or four hundred miles west into the land) from their eating Mihtuck-quash, that is, trees. They are men eaters: they set no corn, but live on the bark of chestnut and walnut, and other fine trees. They dry and eat this bark with the fat of beasts, and sometimes of men. This people are the terrour of the neighbour natives.

Mohowaugsuck, or Mauquauog, from moho, to eat; the Cannibals,, or Men-eaters, up into the west, two, three, or four hundred miles from us.

CHAP. III.

Concerning Sleep and Lodging.

HEY will sleep without the doors contentedly, by a fire under a

language with them, are fearful to entertain them. In summer time, I have known them lie abroad often themselves, to make room for strangers, English or others.

Wauwhautowaw anawat; there is an alarm, or there is a great shout- . ing. Howling and shouting is their alarm, they having no drums nor trumpets. But whether an enemy approach, or a fire brake out, this alarm passeth from house to house: yea commonly, if any English or Dutch come amongst them, they give notice to strangers by this sign. Yet I have known them buy and use a Dutch trumpet, and known a native make a good drum, in imitation of the English.

Matannauke, or Mattannaukanash; a finer sort of mats to sleep on. They plentifully lay on wood, when they lie down to sleep, winter or summer: abundance they have, and abundance they lay on their fire is instead of our bed clothes. And so themselves, and any that have occasion to lodge with them, must be content to turn often to the fire, if the night be cold; and they who first wake, must repair the fire.

When they have had a bad dream, which they conceive to be a threatening from God, they fall to prayer at all times of the night, especially early before day.

I once travelled to an island of the wildest in our parts, where, in the night, an Indian, as he said, had a vision or dream of the sun, whom they worship for a God, darting a beam into his breast; which he conceived to be the messenger of his death. This poor native called his friends and neighbours, and prepared some little refreshing for VOL. III.

Cc

them; but himself was kept waking and fasting, in great humiliations and invocations, for ten days and nights. I was alone, having travelled from my bark, the wind being contrary; and little could I speak to them to their understanding, especially because of the change of their dialect or manner of speech; yet so much, through the help of God, I did speak, of the true and living only wise God, of the creation of man and his fall from God, &c. that at my parting, many burst forth, "Oh, when will you come again, to bring us some more news of this God?"

CHAP. IV.

Of their Numbers.

two. Nish; three. Yoh; four. Napan

NUIT, one Nee; ; x. Enada; seven. Shwosuck; eight. Pas

kugit; nine. Piuck; ten. Piuck nabna quit; eleven. Piucknab neese; twelve. Neesneecheck; twenty. Shwincheck; thirty. Yowinicheck; forty. Nquit pawsuck; one hundred.

Napannetashincheck; fifty.

Nquittemittannug; one thousand.*

Having no letters nor arts, it is admirable how quick they are in casting up great numbers, with the help of grains of corn, instead of Europe's pens or counters.

Numbers of the masculine gender.

Pawsuck Skeetomp; one man!

N

CHAP. V.

Of their Relations of Consanguinity, &c.

NIN; man. Nninnuog; men. Skeetomp; man. Squaws; womanı. Squaws-suck; women. Kichize; an old man. Homes; an old Homesuck; old men. Kutchinnu; a middle aged man. Wuskeene; a youth. Wenise; an old woman. Wasick; a husband.

man.

* By combining the Indian numbers together, the author continues the enumeration o one hundred thousand. But this was probably much further than the natives went the selves.

Weewo, or Mittummus, or Wullogana; a wife. Osh; a father. Nosh; my father. Cosh; your father; Okasu, or Witchwhaw; a mother. Wussese; an uncle. Papoos; a child. Nonanese; a sucking child.

Weemat; a brother.

They hold the band of brother-hood so dear, that when one had committed a murder and fled, they executed his brother; and it is common for a brother to pay the debt of a brother deceased.

Weticks; a sister. Watoncks; a cousin. Kihtuckquaw; a virgin marriageable.

Their virgins are distinguished by a bashful falling down of the hair over their eyes.

There are no beggars amongst them, nor fatherless children unprovided for.

Their affections, especially to their children, are very strong: so that I have known a father take so grievously the loss of his child, that he hath cut and stabbed himself with grief and rage.

This extreme affection, together with want of learning, makes their children saucy, bold, and undutiful.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Family and Business of the House.

I am

them; and no man will offer any hinderance to him, who after some absence, is going to visit his family, and useth this word Nickquenum.

Wetuomemese; a little house, which their women and maids live apart in, four, five, or six days, in the time of their monthly sickness : which custom, in all parts of the country, they strictly observe; and no male may come into that house.

The Indians have houses with one, two, or three fires.

Abockquosinash; the mats of the house. Wuttapuissuck; the long poles, which commonly men get and fix, and then the women cover the house with mats, and line them with embroidered mats, which the women make, and call them Munnotaubana, or hangings, which amongst them make as fair a show as hangings with us.

Wuchickapeuck; birchen bark, and chestnut bark, which they dress finely, and make a summer covering for their houses.

Two families will live comfortably and lovingly in a little round house, of some fourteen or sixteen feet over, and so more and more families in proportion.

They point with the hand to the sun, by whose height they keep account of the day, and by the moon and stars by night, as we do by clocks and dials.

They are as full of business, and as impatient of hinderance (in their kind) as any merchant in Europe.