Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	woman_n	word_n	wound_n	22	3	7.6879	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57484	The history of the Caribby-islands, viz, Barbados, St Christophers, St Vincents, Martinico, Dominico, Barbouthos, Monserrat, Mevis, Antego, &c in all XXVIII in two books : the first containing the natural, the second, the moral history of those islands : illustrated with several pieces of sculpture representing the most considerable rarities therein described : with a Caribbian vocabulary / rendred into English by John Davies ...; Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles de l'Amerique. English	Rochefort, César de, b. 1605.; Davies, John, 1625-1693.; Breton, Raymond, 1609-1679.	1666 (1666)	Wing R1740; ESTC R16877	340,702	386

doleful voice interrupted by sighs she represents the injuries which the whole Nation hath receiv'd from the Arouagues their ancient and inveterate Enemies And having reckon'd up the greatest cruelties which they have heretofore exercis'd against the Caribbians and the gallant men they have kill'd or taken in the Battels that were fought between them she comes to particularize in those who were lately made Prisoners massacred and eaten in some later Engagements And at last she concludes that it were a shameful and an insupportable disparagement to their Nation if they should not revenge themselves and generously imitate their Predecessors those brave Caribbians who minded nothing so much as to gain satisfaction for the injuries they had receiv'd and who after they had shaken off the yoke which the Tyrants would have impos'd on them for the taking away of their ancient Liberty have carried their victorious Arms into the Territories of their Enemies whom they have pursu'd with darts and fire and forc'd to make their retreats into their highest Mountains the clefts of Rocks and the dreadful recesses of their thickest Forests and this with so great success that at present they dare not appear at their own Sea-coasts and can find no habitation so remote where they think themselves secure from the assaults of the Caribbians fear and astonishment having been their constant attendants after such signal Victories That they are therefore couragiously to prosecute their advantages and not to rest till that pestilent Enemy be utterly destroy'd As soon as the old Woman hath made an end of her discourse the Captain makes a Speech to the same purpose to make a greater impression in the minds of the Audience which ended the whole Assembly unanimously applauds the Proposition and make all demonstrations imaginable of the justice of their Cause From that time being encourag'd by the words they had heard they breathe nothing but blood and wounds The Captain concluding by the applause of the whole Assembly and by their gestures and countenances that they are resolv'd for the War though they do not say so much immediately orders it and appoints the time for the Enterprize by some of their ways of numbring as we have hinted in the Chapter of their Natural Simplicity In this place we are to make this particular Remark That they take these bloody resolutions when they are well loaden with drink and after the Divel hath tormented them to egge them on thereto as we have said elsewhere The next day after the Assembly nothing is seen or heard in all parts of the Island but preparations for the War Some polish their Bows others order their Clubs others prepare sharpen and poison their Arrows and others are employ'd to make ready the Piragas The Women for their parts are busie about disposing and getting together the necessary provisions for the Army So that on the day appointed they all meet at the Sea-side with all things in a readiness to embarque They all furnish themselves with good Bows and every one with a good sheaf of Arrows which are made of a small smooth Reed with a little piece of iron or some sharp bone at the point The Arrows us'd by the Brasilians are made after the same manner but the Caribbians adde to theirs to make them more dreadful a mortal poison made of the juice of the Manchenillo-trees and other poisons so that the least scratch made by them becomes a mortal wound It hath hitherto been a thing impossible to get out of them the Receipt of that composition They have also every one of them that wooden sword which they call Boutous or to say better that massy Club which they use instead of a sword and wherewith they do miracles in point of fencing These are all their Arms for they have no Targets or Bucklers as the Tapinambous but their bodies are naked Next the care they take about their Arms they also provide themselves sufficiently with belly-timber and take along with them in their little vessels good quantities of Cassava broil'd Fish Fruits and particularly Bananas which keep a long time and the meal of Manioc The Icaqueses in their Wars never trouble themselves about any such thing and what they do in this particular is so peculiar to them that it deserves to be mentioned for they are content with so little sontheir sustenance and delight so much in living upon certain Plumbs which grow abundantly in their Parts and from which they have their name that when they go to the Wars they are never seen to carry any provisions for the belly along with them Our Savages of the Caribbies as well as those of Brasil take along with them to the Wars a certain number of Women to dress their meat and look to the Piragas when they are got ashore Their Arms and Provisions are well fasten'd to these Piragas so that if the Vessel comes to overturn which happens often they set it right again without losing any thing of what was in it And upon those occasions being so good Swimmers as we have represented them they are not troubled for their own persons so far that they have sometimes laugh'd at the Christians who being neer them upon those occasions endeavour'd to relieve them Thus the Tapinambous laugh'd at some French men upon the like accident as De Lery relates The sails of the Caribbians are made of Cotton or a kind of Mat of Palm-leaves They have an excellent faculty of rowing with certain little Oars which they move very fast They take along with them also some Canows which are their least kind of Vessels to attend their Piragas Their custom is to go from Island to Island to refresh themselves and to that end they have Gardens even in those which are desert and not inhabited They also touch at the Islands of their own Nation to joyn their Forces and take in as they go along all those that are in a condition to accompany them and so their Army increases and with that equipage they get with little noise to the Frontiers When they sail along the Coasts and night comes upon them they bring their Vessels ashore and in half an hours time they make up their lodging-place under some Tree with Balisier and Latanier-leaves which they fasten together on poles or reeds sustain'd by forks planted in the ground which serve for a foundation to this little structure and to hang their beds on These lodgings thus made in haste they call Aioupa The Lacedaemonian Law-giver had forbidden among other things that War should be always wag'd against the same Enemies for fear they might thereby grow more experienc'd in Military Affairs But the Caribbians follow not those Maximes nor fear any such inconvenience for they always make War against the same Nation Their ancient and irreconcileable Enemies are the Arouacas Arouaques or Arouagues which is the name commonly given them in the Islands though the Caribbians call them Alouagues who live

Casubyrs assure us that the Brasilians live no less nay that sometimes they exceed a hundred and sixty And in Florida and Jucatan some have gone beyond that age Nay it is reported that the French at the time of Laudoniere's voyage into Florida in the year MDLXIV saw there an old man who said he was three hundred years of age and Father of five Generations And if we may credit Maffaeus an Inhabitant of Bengala in the year 1557. made it his boast that he was three hundred thirty five years of age So that all this consider'd it is no incredible thing that our Caribbians should live so long Aselepiades as Plutarch relates was of opinion that generally the Inhabitants of cold Countries liv'd longer than those of hot giving this reason that the cold keeps in the natural heat and closes the pores to that end whereas that heat is easily dispersed in those Climates where the pores are kept open by the heat of the Sun But experience in the Caribbians and so many other Nations of the Torrid Zone who ordinarily live so long while our Europaeans commonly dye young destroies that argument When it happens that our Caribbians as sometimes it must are troubled with any indisposition they have the knowledge of abundance of Herbs Fruits Roots Oils and Gums by the assistance whereof they recover their health in a short time if the disease be not incurable They have also an infallible secret to cure the stinging of Snakes provided they have not touch'd a vein for then there is no remedy This is the juice of a certain Herb which they apply to the wound and in four and twenty hours they are infallibly cured The bad nourishment of Crabs and other insects on which they commonly feed is the cause that they are most of them subject to a troublesome disease which in their language they call Pyans as the French call it a kind of small Pox When those who are fallen into this disease eat of the Fram-Tortoise or of Lamantin or of Caret which is another kind of Tortoise they are immediately full of little risings inasmuch as these meats force the disease out they have also many times great Impostumes Cornes and Carbuncles in divers parts of the body To cure those which proceed for the most part from the bad nourishment they use they have the bark of a tree called Chipiou bitter as soot which they steep in water and having scrap'd into that infusion the inner part of a great shell called Lambys they drink up that potion They also sometimes pound the bark newly taken from certain trees of Miby or other Withyes which creep along the ground or fasten on trees and drink the juice gotten from it but they do not willingly make use of this remedy but when the trees are most full of sap Besides these Medicines wherewith they purge the ill humours within they also apply outwardly certain unguents and liniments which have a particular vertue of taking away the blisters and marks which commonly remain on their bodies who have been troubled with the Pyans They make up these Remedies with the ashes of burnt Reeds mixt with the water which they get out of the leaves at the top of the Balisier-tree They also use to the same end the juice of the Junipae fruit and they apply on the botches the husks of the same fruit which hath the vertue of drawing away the matter of the wounds and to close up the Ulcers They have not the use of Phlebotomy but they use scarifications upon the place affected by scratching or opening it with the Tooth of an Agouty and causing it to bleed a little And to take off somewhat of the astonishment which might be conceived at what we have represented elswhere concerning the incisions which these Barbarians make on themselves upon divers occasions whereby it might be imagin'd their bodies should be as it were mangled and covered with scars it is to be noted that they have also certain secrets and infallible remedies to cure themselves presently and to close the wounds so that a man cannot easily observe the least scar about their bodies They also make use of artificial Baths and provoke sweat by a kind of stove wherein they inclose the Patient who receives his absolute cure by that remedy The Sorriqueses do also sweat their sick but sometimes they moisten them with their breath And for the cure of wounds they and the Floridians suek out the blood as was practis'd by the ancient Physitians when any one had been bitten by a venemous beast causing him who was to do that office to be prepar'd for that purpose It is reported also that our Caribbians when they have been stung by some dangerous Serpent cause the wound to be sucked by their Wives after they have taken a drink which hath the vertue of abating the force of the venome The Topinambous do also suck the affected parts though there be no wound which is also sometimes done in Florida And the Turks when they are troubled with any defluxion and pain either in the head or any other part of the body burn the part affected Some Barbarian Nations have much stranger remedies in their Diseases as may be seen in Histories It is reported that the Indians of Mechoacam and Tabasco in New-Spain to cure themselves of Fevers cast themselves stark-naked into the River thinking thereby to drown the disease Some thing of the same kind hath also been seen among the Caribbians for Monsieur du Montel met there one day an old man washing his head in a very cold spring and having asked him the ●eason of it the man replyed that it was to cure himself for he was much troubled with cold and yet contrary to all rules of our Medicine this strange remedy prov'd fortunate to the old man for the same Gentleman met him the next day very well and lusty and quite cur'd of his indisposition and the Savage failed not to brag of it and laugh at the French-man for pitying him the day before The Caribbians are very shye in communicating their secrets in Medicine especially the women who are very skilful in all those cures nay they are so careful in keeping to themselves the sovereign Remedies they have against the wounds made by poisoned Arrows that no rewards could yet prevail with them to discover them to the Christians But they are very willing to come and visit them and to dress them when they stand i● need of their assistance For a person of quality among the French having been dangerously bitten by a Serpent was happily recovered by their means Which kindness of theirs makes them differ much from those brutish people of Guinny and Sumatra who have no compassion on their own sick but leave them to shift for themselves like so many poor beasts But the ancient people of the Province of Babylon concern'd themselves so particularly in all Diseases that the sick were

rejoicing dancing and singing as persons delivered out of the miseries of humane life After the Caribbians have wept over their dead they wash them paint the bodies with a red colour rub their heads with Oil comb their hair thrust up the legs to the thighs and the elbows between the legs and bend down the face upon the hands so that the whole body somewhat resembles the posture of the child in the mothers womb and then they wrap it up in a new bed till all things be ready to dispose it into the ground There have been some Nations who cast the bodies of the dead into Rivers as some Aethiopians did Others cast them to Birds and Dogs as the Parthians the Hircanians and such others who were somewhat of the same humour with Diogenes the Cynick Some others covered them with heaps of stones It is reported of some Inhabitants of Africk that they disposed their dead in earthen Vessels and that others put them into glass Heraclitus who maintained that fire was the principle of all things would have the bodies of the dead burnt that they might return to their first origine And this Custom observed for several ages among the Romans is at this day practised among divers oriental Nations But Cyrus at his death affirmed that there was nothing happier than to be disposed into the bosom of the earth the common Mother of all mankind The first Romans were of the same opinion for they interr'd their dead And of the several ways of disposing of the dead interring is that which is in use among the Caribbians They do not make their Graves according to our fashion but like those of the Turks Brasilians and Canadians that is about four or five foot deep and round like a Tun and at the bottom of it they set a little stool on which the Relations and Friends of the deceased place the body sitting leaving it in the same posture as they put it in immediately after the death of the party They commonly make the grave within the house of the deceased or if they bury him elsewhere they always make a covering over the place where the body is to be laid and after they have let it down into the grave and wrap'd it in an Amac they make a great fire about it and all the more ancient both men and women kneel down The men place themselves behind the women and ever and anon they stroke them with their hands over their arms to incite them to lament and weep Then singing and weeping they all say with a pitiful and lamenting voice Alas why didst thou dye Thou hadst so much good Manioc good Potatoes good Bananas good Ananas Thou wert belov'd in thy Family and they had so great care of thy person Why therefore wouldst thou dye Why wouldst thou dye If the party were a man they add Thou wert so valiant and so generous thou hast overthrown so many Enemies thou hast behav'd thy self gallantly in so many fights thou hast made us eat so many Arouagues Alas who shall now defend us against the Arouagues Why therefore wouldst thou dye And they repeat these expostulations several times over The Topinambous make in a manner the same lamentations over the graves of their dead He is dead say they that brave Huntsman that excellent Fisher man that valiant Warriour that gallant eater of Prisoners that great Destroyer of Portuguez and Margajats that generous Defender of our Country he is departed this world And they often repeat the same expressions The Inhabitants of Guinny do also ask their deceased what obliged them to dye and they rub their Faces with a wisp of straw to try if that will awake them And Busbequius in the Relation of his Embassies into Turkey relates that passing through a Town of Servia named Yagodena he heard the women and young maids lamenting over a deceased person and saying to him in their Funeral songs as if he had been able to hear them What have we deserved and wherein have we been deficient in doing thee service and comforting thee What cause of discontent have we ever given thee that should oblige thee to leave us Which somewhat relates to the complaints of our Caribbians The howlings and expostulations of the Topinambous and the Virginians upon the like occasions last ordinarily a month The people of Aegypt continu'd their lamentations seventy dayes And some Floridians employ old women to bewail the deceased for the space of six months But Lycurgus limited mourning for the dead to eleven days and that is much about the time that our Caribbians took to do the same office before they put the dead body into the ground For during the space of ten dayes or thereabouts twice every day the Relations and the most intimate friends came to visit the deceased party at his grave and they always brought him somewhat to eat and drink saying to him every time Alas why wouldst thou dye why wilt thou not return to life again say not at least that we refused thee wherewithall to live upon for we have brought thee somewhat to eat and drink And after they have made this pleasant exhortation to him as if he should have heard them they left the meat and drink they had brought with them at the brink of the grave till the next visit at which time they put it on his head since he thought it much to stretch forth his hand to take it The Peruvians the Brasilians the Canadians the Inhabitants of Madagascar the Canarians the Tartars the Chineses do also bring certain dishes of meat to the graves of their neerest Relations And not to go to Countries at so great a distance is there not something of this kind done among us for during certain dayes they serve the Effigies of our Kings and Princes newly dead and they are presented with meat and drink as if they were living nay so far as to taste the meats and drinks before them The Caribbians of some Islands do still set meat at the graves of the deceased but they leave them not so long as they did heretofore ere they covered them with earth For after the Funeral lamentation is ended and that the women have wept as much as they can some friend of the deceased laies a plank over his head and the rest put the earth together with their hands till they have filled the grave that done they burn all that belonged to the deceased They also sometimes kill Slaves to attend the Ghosts of the deceased and to wait on them in the other world But these poor wretches get out of the way when their Masters dye into some other Island We may justly conceive a horrour at the relation of these inhumane and barbarous Funerals which are drench'd with the blood of Slaves and divers other persons and among others women who have their throats cut are burnt and buried alive to go and accompany their Husbands into the