Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    196/226 (page 182)
    the great Men, or Cockaroufes (as they call them) of the Nation. The whole Ceremony is performed af¬ ter the following manner. The choiceft, and briskeft young Men of the Town, and fuch only as have acquired fome Trea- fure in their Travels and Hunting, are chofen out by their Rulers to be Hufquenavfd ; and whoever refufes to undergo this Procefs, dares not remain among them. They carry them into the Woods, and there keep them under Confinement, and defti- tute of all Society, for feveral Months, giving them no other Suftenance but the Infufion or Deco&ion of fome poifonous intoxicating Roots, by virtue of which Phyfick, and by the Severity of the Difci- pline they undergo, they become hark flaring mad ; in which raving Condition they are kept eighteen or twenty Days. During thefe Extremities, they are fhut up Night and Day in a itrong Inclofure, made on purpofe, one of which he faw belonging to the Paumaunkie Indians, in the Year idpq. It was in the Shape of a Sugar-Loaf, and every way open like a Lettice for the Air to pafs through, of which he has given a Cut, Tab. 4. fig- 31. In this Cage thirteen young Men had been Hufquenaiv d, and had not been a Month fet at liberty, when he faw it. Upon this Occafion it is pretended, that thefe poor Creatures drink fo much of that Water of Lethe, that they per¬ fectly loofe their Remembrance of all former things, even of their Parents, their Treafwre, and their Language. When the Doctors find they have drank futficiently of the Wyfoccan, fo they call this mad Potion, they gradually reflore them to their Senfes again, by leffening the Intoxication of their Dier. But before they are perfectly well, they bring them back into their Towns, while they are ftill wild and crafy through the Violence of the Medicine. After this, they are very fearful of difeovering any thing of their former Remembrance j for if fuch a thing fhould