Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/207

 before night arrived. On the morning of the Englishman&#8217;s departure, he breakfasted on a broiled turkey, and a turkey and three baskets of bread were given him to satisfy his hunger during his journey to Jamestown. This abundance was not confined to the royal palace. On one occasion Smith and his companions, who were on their way to Werowocomoco, stopped at Kecoughtan, being detained by the wind and snow, and there they spent Christmas among the savages in the enjoyment of as excellent oysters, as much fish and wild fowl, as good bread, and as roaring fires, as if they had been in old England.

It is interesting to observe the use which the Indians made of the products of the earth in adorning and clothing their persons. The poorest individuals among them were in the habit of covering their bodies in winter with deer skins from which the hair had not been removed, and in summer they occasionally threw over their shoulders the dressed skin of the same animal, but in general they wore at this season only a belt of leather, in which blades of grass, or leaves of trees, had been thrust before and behind. This belt was also made of silk grass. The opulent Indians wore mantles manufactured from the skins of the squirrel, the raccoon, the beaver, and the otter, the last being held in the highest esteem. The aboriginal shoe was fashioned out of buckskin, but it was not universally used. Until the girls had passed their twelfth year they remained in a state of nudity, with the exception of a small bunch of moss in front of the thighs, but after that age they wore a leathern apron dropping from the waist to the knee. The women were clothed in large mantles of skin carefully dressed, and