between every two heaps of corn. These
proceedings, lasting at intervals for three days, were punctuated with
violent gesticulations, grunts, groans, and a great rattling of
gourds.[17]

Another custom of the Indians is linked with a romantic incident in
Virginia history. Not infrequently some wretched captive, already
bound, to be tortured to death, has owed his life to the interference
of some member of the tribe who announced his or her desire to adopt
him as a brother or son. The motives inducing this interference
proceeded sometimes from mere business considerations and sometimes
from pity, superstition, or admiration. It was Captain Smith's fortune
during his captivity to have a personal experience of this nature.
After the conjuration at Uttamussick Smith was brought to Werowocomoco
and ushered into a long wigwam, where he found Powhatan sitting upon a
bench and covered with a great robe of raccoon skins, with the tails
hanging down like tassels. On either side of him sat an Indian girl of
sixteen or seventeen years, and along the walls of the room two rows
of grim warriors, and back of them two rows of women with faces and
shoulders painted red, hair bedecked with the plumage of birds, and
necks strung with chains of white beads.

At Smith's entrance those present gave a great shout, and presently
two stones were brought before Powhatan, and on these stones Smith's
head was laid. Next several warriors with clubs took their stand near
him to beat out his brains, whereupon Powhatan's "dearest daughter,"
Pocahontas, a girl of about twelve years old, rushed forward and
entreated her father to spare the prisoner. When Powhatan refused she
threw herself upon Smith, got his head in her arms, and laid her own
upon his. This proved too much for Powhatan. He ordered Smith to be
released, and, telling him that henceforth he would regard him as his
son, sent him with guides back to Jamestown.[18]

The credibility of this story has been attacked on the ground that it
does not occur in Smith's _True Relation_, a contemporaneous account
of the colony, and appears first in his _Generall Historie_, published
in 1624. But the editor of the _True Relation_ expressly states that
the published account does not include the entire manuscript as it
came from Smith. Hence the omission counts for little, and there is
nothing unusual in Smith's experience, which, as Dr. Fiske says, "is
precisely in accord with Indian usage." About 1528