ilt like their common cabins, in which their idol stands,
and the corpses of their kings and rulers are preserved.

They have no sort of literature among them; and their way of
communicating things from one to another is by hieroglyphics. They make
their accounts by units, tens, hundreds, &c., as the English do; but they
reckon their years by cohonks, or winters, and divide every year into
five seasons; the budding time, the earing of the corn, the summer, the
harvest, and the winter.

Their months they count by moons. They divide the day into three parts,
the rise, power, and lowering, of the sun; and keep their accounts by
knots on a string, or notches on a stick, of which Captain Smith relates
a very pleasant story; that, when the princess Pocahonta went for
England, a Coucarouse, or lord of her own nation, attended her; his name
was Uttamaccomack: and king Powhatan, Pocahonta's father, commanded him,
when he arrived in England, to count the people, and give him an account
of their number. Uttamaccomock, when he came ashore, got a stick,
intending to count them by notches; but he soon found that his arithmetic
would be to no purpose, and threw away his stick. At his return, the
king asked him how many people there were? and he replied, count the
stars of the sky, the leaves upon the trees, and the sand upon the
seashore, and you will know how many are the people in England.

They esteem the marriage-vow as the most sacred of all engagements, and
abhor divorces; adultery is the most unpardonable of all crimes amongst
them, and seldom occurs without exemplary punishment.

Their maidens are very chaste; and if any one of them happen to have a
child before marriage, her fortune is spoiled. They are very sprightly
and good humoured, and the women generally handsome. Their manner of
handling infants is very rough: as soon as the child is born, they plunge
it over head and ears in cold water, and they bind it naked to a board,
making a hole in the proper place for evacuation. Between the child and
the board they put some cotton, wool, or fur, and let it lie in this
posture till the bones begin to harden, the joints to knit, and the limbs
to grow strong; they then loosen it from the board, and let it crawl
about where it pleases. From this custom, it is said, the Indians derive
the neatness and exactness of their limbs, which are the most perfect in
the world. Some of them are of a gigantic stature, live to a grea