f rum. The Colonel at first seemed to know
nothing of the matter, and asked the Indian for what reason he made that
demand? (Although his overseer had been so overjoyed at what had
happened that he could not rest till he had taken a horse and rode near
forty miles to tell his master the story.) The Indian answered with some
concern, that he hoped the overseer had let him know the service he had
done him, by bringing a shower of rain to save his crop. At this the
Colonel, not being apt to believe such stories, smiled, and told him he
was a cheat, and had seen the cloud acoming, otherwise he could neither
have brought the rain nor so much as foretold it. The Indian at this,
seeming much troubled, replied, why then had not such a one, and such a
one, (naming the next neighbor,) rain, as well as your overseer? for
they lost their crops, but I loved you and therefore I saved yours. The
Colonel made sport with him a little while, but in the end ordered him
the two bottles of rum, letting him understand, however, that it was a
free gift, and not the consequence of any bargain with his overseer.

Sec. 32. The Indians have their altars and places of sacrifice. Some say
they now and then sacrifice young children; but they deny it, and assure
us, that when they withdraw their children, it is not to sacrifice them,
but to consecrate them to the service of their god. Smith tells of one
of these sacrifices in his time, from the testimony of some people who
had been eye-witnesses. His words are these, (vol. 1, p. 140):

"Fifteen of the properest young boys, between ten and fifteen
years of age, they painted white; having brought them forth, the
people spent the forenoon in dancing and singing about them with
rattles. In the afternoon, they put these children to the root of
a tree. By them all the men stood in a guard, every one having a
bastinado in his hand, made of reeds bound together. They made a
lane between them all along, through which there were appointed
five young men to fetch these children: so every one of the five
went through the guard to fetch a child each after other by turns;
the guard fiercely beating them with their bastinadoes, and they
patiently enduring and receiving all, defending the children with
their naked bodies from the unmerciful blows, that pay them
soundly, though the children escape. All this while the women weep
and cry out very passionately, providing mats, skins, moss and