n every new occasion; as
when they travel or begin a long journey, they burn tobacco instead of
incense, to the sun, to bribe him to send them fair weather, and a
prosperous voyage. When they cross any great water, or violent fresh, or
torrent, they throw in tobacco, puccoon, peak, or some other valuable
thing, that they happen to have about them, to intreat the spirit
presiding there to grant them a safe passage. It is called a fresh, when
after very great rains, or (as we suppose) after a great thaw of the
snow and ice lying upon the mountains to the westward, the water
descends in such abundance into the rivers, that they overflow the
banks, which bound their streams at other times.

Likewise, when the Indians return from war, from hunting, from great
journeys or the like, they offer some proportion of their spoils, of
their chiefest tobacco, furs and paint, as also the fat, and choice bits
of their game.

Sec. 35. I never could learn that they had any certain time or set days for
their solemnities; but they have appointed feasts that happen according
to the several seasons. They solemnize a day for the plentiful coming of
their wild fowl, such as geese, ducks, teal, &c., for the returns of
their hunting seasons, and for the ripening of certain fruits; but the
greatest annual feast they have, is at the time of their corn-gathering,
at which they revel several days together. To these they universally
contribute, as they do to the gathering in the corn. On this occasion,
they have their greatest variety of pastimes, and more especially of
their war-dances and heroic songs; in which they boast, that their corn
being now gathered, they have store enough for their women and children,
and have nothing to do, but to go to war, travel, and to seek out for
new adventures.

Sec. 36. They make their account by units, tens, hundreds, &c., as we do;
but they reckon the years by the winters, or _cobonks_, as they call
them; which is a name taken from the note of the wild-geese, intimating
so many times of the wild geese coming to them, which is every winter.
They distinguish the several parts of the year, by five seasons, viz:
the budding or blossoming of the spring; the earing of the corn, or
roasting-ear time; the summer, or highest sun; the corn-gathering or
fall of the leaf, and the winter, or _cobonks_. They count the months
likewise by the moons, though not with any relation to so many in a
year, as we do; but they make t