d bitter; these they bruise in water and press the juice
out of them, which he must drink, and immediately have ready such herbs
as will preserve him from death or vomiting; and if he cannot retain
it, he must repeat the dose until he can support it, and until his
constitution becomes accustomed to it so that he can retain it.
Then he comes home, and is brought by the men and women, all singing
and dancing, before the Sackima; and if he has been able to stand it
all well, and if he is fat and sleek, a wife is given to him.
In that district there are no lions or bears, but there are the same
kinds of other game, such as deers, hinds, beavers, otters, foxes,
lynxes, seals and fish, as in our district of country. The savages say
that far in the interior there are certain beasts of the size of oxen,
having but one horn, which are very fierce. The English have used
great diligence in order to see them, but cannot succeed therein,
although they have seen the flesh and hides of them which were brought
to them by the savages. There are also very large elks here, which the
English have indeed seen.
The lion skins which we sometimes see our savages wear are not large,
so that the animal itself must be small; they are of a mouse-gray
color, short in the hair and long in the claws.
The bears are some of them large and some small; but the largest are
not so large as the middle-sized ones which come from Greenland. Their
fur is long and black and their claws large. The savages esteem the
flesh and grease as a great dainty.
Of the birds, there is a kind like starlings, which we call maize
thieves, because they do so much damage to the maize. They fly in
large flocks, so that they flatten the corn in any place where they
alight, just as if cattle had lain there. Sometimes we take them by
surprise and fire amongst them with hailshot, immediately that we have
made them rise, so that sixty, seventy, and eighty fall all at once,
which is very pleasant to see.
There are also very large turkeys living wild; they have very long
legs, and can run extraordinarily fast, so that we generally take
savages with us when we go to hunt them; for even when one has deprived
them of the power of flying, they yet run so fast that we cannot catch
them unless their legs are hit also.
In the autumn and in the spring there come a great many geese, which
are very good, and easy to shoot, inasmuch as they congregate together
in such large f
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