sixteen or seventeen snakes; the snake skins and the tails were drawn up over his head, where they were united in a knot, the ends dangling on all sides like the strands of a great tassel. The conjurer, who was the Indian Mercury, for he was always in motion and in haste, was much more scantily clothed, the only article of dress about his person being a girdle, from which his bag or pocket depended, and a skin in front of the thighs, while a blackbird, with outstretched wings, was fastened to his ear.[1]
The hair of the Indians was arranged in keeping with their rank. The priest shaved the right side of his head, leaving only a small lock at the ear; the head of the warrior was also shaved on the right side, but the lock was omitted in order that there might be no obstruction to the free use of his bow and arrow; his hair was allowed to grow on the left side, being drawn up and tied into a knot. The unmarried women cut their hair close in front and on either side, while behind, it was plaited, and suffered to hang down; the hair of the married women, on the other hand, was permitted to grow at length, but was also plaited behind. The men stuck in the knot of hair on the side of their heads objects of various kinds, such as the antlers of the deer, the dried hand of a dead enemy, and plates of copper; or they attached to it a hawk carefully stuffed, with pinions extended, or the outspread wing of the cluck or buzzard; and to these objects little bunches of loose shells were tied which rattled as the head was moved. The Indians perforated the ear in two or three places, and in these holes inserted strings, to which chains of bone, pearl, and copper were bound, or the legs of hawks, eagles, and turkeys, or the claws of bears, raccoons, and squirrels. In some instances, small
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 70; Beverley’s History of Virginia, p. 167.
