his was their war-dress, and it made them look like furies. They made
no speech. Next came the young women with long, straight, black hair
reaching down to the waist, with a blanket tied round them, and hanging
down like a petticoat. Most of them had nothing to cover them from the
waist upwards; but some wore a mantle over the shoulders, made of two
deer-skins sewed together. These Indians greased their bodies and heads
with bear's oil, which, with the smoke of their cabins, gave them a
disagreeable odor. They were very modest and faithful to their husbands.
"They are straight and well-limbed, of good shape and extraordinary good
features, as well the men as the women. They look wild, and are mighty
shy of an Englishman, and will not let you touch them."[385:A]

The Saponey town was situated on the bank of the Meherrin, the houses
all joining one another and making a circle. This circle could be
entered by three passages, each about six feet wide. All the doors are
on the inside of the circle, and the level area within was common for
the diversion of the people. In the centre was a large stump of a tree,
on which the head men stood when making a speech. The women bound their
infants to a board cut in the shape of the child; the top of the board
was round, and there was a hole for a string, by which it is hung to the
limb of a tree, or to a pin in a post, and there swings and diverts
himself out of harm's way. The Saponeys lived as lazily and as miserably
as any people in the world. The boys with their bows shot at the eye of
an axe, set up at twenty yards distance, and the governor rewarded their
skill with knives and looking-glasses. They also danced the war-dance;
after which the governor treated them to a luncheon, which they devoured
with animal avidity.

FOOTNOTES:

[384:A] Keith's Hist of Va., 173.

[384:B] Huguenot Family, 271, and map opposite page 357. The names on
this little map, taken from a letter by Peter Fontaine, are reversed, by
mistake of the engraver.

[384:C] State and Condition of Virginia.

[384:D] Rev. C. Griffin's Letter, in Bishop Meade's Old Churches, etc.,
i. 287.

[385:A] Huguenot Family, 272.

CHAPTER LI.

1716.

Spotswood's Tramontane Expedition--His Companions--Details of
the Exploration--They cross the Blue Ridge--The Tramontane
Order--The Golden Horseshoe.

IT was in the year 1716 that Spotswood made the first complete discovery
of a passage over t