tenance but the infusion, or
decoction, of some poisonous, intoxicating roots; by virtue of which
physic, and by the severity of the discipline which they undergo, they
became stark, staring mad; in which raving condition, they are kept
eighteen or twenty days. During these extremities, they are shut up,
night and day, in a strong inclosure, made on purpose; one of which I
saw belonging to the Pamunky Indians, in the year 1694. It was in shape
like a sugar loaf, and every way open like a lattice for the air to pass
through, as in tab. 4, fig. 3. In this cage, thirteen young men had been
huskanawed, and had not been a month set at liberty when I saw it. Upon
this occasion, it is pretended that these poor creatures drink so much
of that water of Lethe, that they perfectly lose the remembrance of all
former things, even of their parents, their treasure, and their
language. When the doctors find that they have drank sufficiently of the
wysoccan, (so they call this mad potion,) they gradually restore them to
their senses again, by lessening the intoxication of their diet; but
before they are perfectly well, they bring them back into their towns,
while they are still wild and crazy, through the violence of the
medicine. After this, they are very fearful of discovering anything of
their former remembrance; for if such a thing should happen to any of
them, they must immediately be huskanawed again; and the second time,
the usage is so severe, that seldom any one escapes with life. Thus they
must pretend to have forgot the very use of their tongues, so as not to
be able to speak, nor understand anything that is spoken, till they
learn it again. Now, whether this be real or counterfeit, I don't know;
but certain it is, that they will not for some time take notice of any
body, nor anything with which they were before acquainted, being still
under the guard of their keepers, who constantly wait upon them
everywhere till they have learnt all things perfectly over again. Thus
they unlive their former lives, and commence men by forgetting that they
ever have been boys. If, under this exercise, any one should die, I
suppose the story of Okee, mentioned by Smith, is the salvo for it; for,
(says he) Okee was to have such as were his by lot, and such were said
to be sacrificed.

Now this conjecture is the more probable, because we know that Okee has
not a share in every huskanawing; for though two young men happened to
come short home, in