Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/133

Rh hesitation, rescuing it and not tarrying to see that it was clean ere she ate it. Between mouthfuls of meat they partook of the  cracked corn. David, although no stranger to Indian manners, turned his eyes away in  distaste.

About the village many other families were eating or preparing to eat, although as  many more had evidently no thought for  food. At the Natick village the Praying Indians had for some years conformed roughly to the English fashion of eating meals at  regular and prescribed intervals, but the native custom of eating when hungry still held  here. For that reason, so long as he remained, David could always, no matter at what time of day or early evening, find some  one preparing food or consuming it. The Nipmucks were not great flesh-eaters, especially in the summer, he found, preferring  vegetables and grains and fruits with an occasional meal of fish. As time wore on he discovered that his own food came from the  sachem’s stores and that it was evidently  chosen for him with regard to the Indian’s  notion of what the white man preferred. Thus he was served with meat always once a day, although he would more often have