o the good spirit and
speak to him to send them plenty of corn, and to make the young men
all expert hunters and mighty warriors. All this while, the king and
old men sit around the image and seemingly pay a profound respect to
the same. One great help to these Indians in carrying on these
cheats, and inducing youth to do as they please, is, the uninterrupted
silence which is ever kept and observed with all the respect and
veneration imaginable.

At these feasts which are set out with all the magnificence their fare
allows of, the masquerades begin at night and not before. There is
commonly a fire made in the middle of the house, which is the largest
in the town, and is very often the dwelling of their king or war
captain; where sit two men on the ground upon a mat; one with a
rattle, made of a gourd, with some beans in it; the other with a drum
made of an earthen pot, covered with a dressed deer skin, and one
stick in his hand to beat thereon; and so they both begin the song
appointed. At the same time one drums and the other rattles, which is
all the artificial music of their own making I ever saw amongst them.
To these two instruments they sing, which carries no air with it, but
is a sort of unsavory jargon; yet their cadences and raising of their
voices are formed with that equality and exactness that, to us
Europeans, it seems admirable how they should continue these songs
without once missing to agree, each with the others note and tune.

WILLIAM BYRD.

~1674=1744.~

WILLIAM BYRD, second of the name, and the first native Virginian
writer, was born at Westover, his father's estate on the James below
Richmond.

[Illustration: ~Westover, Home of William Byrd.~]

The following inscription on his tomb at Westover gives a sketch of
his life and services well worth preserving:

"Here lies the Honourable William Byrd, Esq., being born to one of the
amplest fortunes in this country, he was sent early to England for
his education, where under the care and direction of Sir Robert
Southwell, and ever favoured with his particular instructions, he made
a happy proficiency in polite and various learning. By the means of
the same noble friend, he was introduced to the acquaintance of many
of the first persons of that age for knowledge, wit, virtue, birth, or
high station, and particularly contracted a most intimate and bosom
friendship with the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of
Orrery.

"He was ca