vicinity, left after breakfast. We went a part of the way through a
wood and fine, new made land, and so along the shore to the west end
of the island called Najack.[119] As we proceeded along the shore, we
found, among other curiosities, a highly marbled stone, very hard, in
which we saw muscovy glass[120] lying in layers between the clefts,
and how it was struck or cut out. We broke off a small piece with some
difficulty, and picked out a little glass in the splits. Continuing
onward from there, we came to the plantation of the Najack Indians,
which was planted with maize, or Turkish wheat. We soon heard a noise
of pounding, like thrashing, and went to the place whence it
proceeded, and found there an old Indian woman busily employed beating
Turkish beans out of the pods by means of a stick, which she did
with astonishing force and dexterity. Gerrit inquired of her, in the
Indian language, which he spoke perfectly well, how old she was, and
she answered eighty years; at which we were still more astonished that
so old a woman should still have so much strength and courage to work
as she did. We went from thence to her habitation, where we found the
whole troop together, consisting of seven or eight families, and
twenty or twenty-two persons, I should think. Their house was low and
long, about sixty feet long and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The
bottom was earth, the sides and roof were made of reed and the bark of
chestnut trees; the posts, or columns, were limbs of trees stuck in
the ground, and all fastened together. The top, or ridge of the roof
was open about half a foot wide, from one end to the other, in order
to let the smoke escape, in place of a chimney. On the sides, or
walls, of the house, the roof was so low that you could hardly stand
under it. The entrances, or doors, which were at both ends, were so
small and low that they had to stoop down and squeeze themselves to
get through them. The doors were made of reed or flat bark. In the
whole building there was no lime, stone, iron or lead. They build
their fire in the middle of the floor, according to the number of
families which live in it, so that from one end to the other each of
them boils its own pot, and eats when it likes, not only the families
by themselves, but each Indian alone, according as he is hungry, at
all hours, morning, noon and night. By each fire are the cooking
utensils, consisting of a pot, a bowl, or calabash, and a spoon also
made