Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/201

 cleansing of his hands, a bunch of feathers being used as a napkin.

So bountiful had nature been to the Virginia of the aborigines, that they were only compelled to provide by manual labor a subsistence for one-fourth of the year; during the remainder they adapted themselves to the seasons, and lived on what the country spontaneously afforded. They were thoughtlessly described as an idle, improvident, and vagabond people; if this were so, it was to be attributed to the happy character of the region in which they resided, that permitted them to obtain their food without the necessity of exerting themselves to an unusual degree. Long after the foundation of Jamestown, when every opportunity had been opened to the whites to convert the country into a productive garden, it was admitted by intelligent observers that the only thing accomplished was to make the native pleasures more scarce, and this was partially shown in the statutes to protect what remained of certain species of fish and wild animals.

The general system of life which the Indians adhered to was as follows: in March and April, when fish were running in the streams, they depended very largely upon their weirs for food, and they also shot, with bow and arrow, turkeys, pheasants, and squirrels in the woods. In May they subsisted principally on strawberries, mulberries, oysters, fish, and beasts of the forest. It was at this season that they dispersed in their hunting excursions. In June, July, and August they fed on fish, the roots of the tuckahoe, berries, and roasting ears; in September and