arrival at Seekonk.]

[Footnote 160: The chief (evil) spirit.]

[Footnote 161: Sachem, lord.]

We asked him, where he believed he came from? He answered from his
father. "And where did your father come from?" we said, "and your
grandfather and great-grandfather, and so on to the first of the
race?" He was silent for a little while, either as if unable to climb
up at once so high with his thoughts, or to express them without help,
and then took a piece of coal out of the fire where he sat, and began
to write upon the floor. He first drew a circle, a little oval, to
which he made four paws or feet, a head and a tail. "This," said he,
"is a tortoise, lying in the water around it," and he moved his hand
round the figure, continuing, "This was or is all water, and so at
first was the world or the earth, when the tortoise gradually raised
its round back up high, and the water ran off of it, and thus the
earth became dry." He then took a little straw and placed it on end in
the middle of the figure, and proceeded, "The earth was now dry, and
there grew a tree in the middle of the earth, and the root of this
tree sent forth a sprout beside it and there grew upon it a man, who
was the first male. This man was then alone, and would have remained
alone; but the tree bent over until its top touched the earth, and
there shot therein another root, from which came forth another sprout,
and there grew upon it the woman, and from these two are all men
produced." We gave him four fish-hooks with which he was much pleased,
and immediately calculated how much in money he had obtained. "I have
got twenty-four stivers' worth," he said. He then inquired our names,
which we gave him, and wished to know why he asked for them? "Well,"
he replied, "because you are good people and are true _nitaps_; and in
case you should come into the woods and fall into the hands of the
Indians, and they should wish to kill or harm you, if I know or hear
of it I might help you, for they will do you no injury when they know
me." For he was the brother of a _sakemaker_. We told him that we did
not give them to him on that account, but only from regard because he
was a good person, although the good will or thankfulness which he
wished to show thereby was good. "Well," he said, "that is good, that
is good," with which, after eating something, he departed.

But at noon he returned with a young Indian, both of them so drunk
they could not speak, and having a cala