Transcription

they throw it away & take another, To till or turn the ground they have wooden spades / if I may so call them / made like stout pickets with a piece of wood tied a crop near the lower and to put the foot upon to force them into the Ground, there G?n Talk Axes that are whole & good they set much Value upon & never would part with them for anything we could offer. I offer'd one day for one; One of the best Axes I had on the ship besides a number of other things but nothing would induce the owner to part with it, from this I infer'd that good ones where scarce among them --

Diversions [in the margin] 
Diversions & Musical instruments  they have but few, the latter Consists of 2 or 3 sorts of Trumpetts & a small Pipe or Whistle & the former in singing and Dancing, their songs are Harmonious enough but very doleful to a Europeans ear. In most of their dances they appear like mad men jumping & Stomping with their feet making strange Contorsions with every part of their body & a hide=ous noise at the same time & if they happen to be in their Canoes they flourish with great Agility their Paddles, Pattoo Pattoos various ways, in the doing of which if there are ever so many boats & People they all keep line & Motion together to a surprizing degree, it was in this manner that they work them=selves to a proper Pitch of Courage before they used to attack us, & it was only  from there after behaviour that we could tell whether they were in jest or in Earnest When they gave these EHeiva's as they call them, of their own accord especially at our first coming into a place.

Their signs of Friendship [in the margin]
Their signs of Friendship is the waving the hand or a piece of Cloth [?].

Manner of mourning for The Dead [in the margin]
We were never able to learn with any degree of certainty in what manner they bury their dead, we were generally told that they put them in the ground, if so it must be in secret or by place for we never saw the least signs of a burying place in the whole Country. Their Custom of mourning for a friend or a relation is by cutting & Searifying their bodys par=ticularly their Arms & breasts in such a manner that the scars remain inde=lible & I believe have some signification such as to show how near related the deceased was to them,

Religion [in the margin]
with respect to religion I believe these people trouble themselves very little about it they however believe that there is one Supream God whom they call Lawney & likewise a number of other inferior deities, but whether or no they worship or Pray to either one or the other we know not with any degree of certainty, it is reasonable to suppose that they do, & I belive it, yet I never saw the least Action or thing among them that tended to prove it ---- They have the same Notions of the Creation of the World, Mankind [?] as the People of the So. Sea Islands have indeed many of their notions & Customs are the very same but nothing is so great a proof of their

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