Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	brother_n	daughter_n	sister_n	5,598	5	10.9500	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35222	The English empire in America, or, A prospect of His Majesties dominions in the West-Indies ... with an account of the discovery, scituation, product, and other excellencies of these countries : to which is prefixed a relation of the first discovery of the New World called America, by the Spaniards, and of the remarkable voyages of several Englishmen to divers places therein : illustrated with maps and pictures by R.B., author of Englands monarchs, &c., Admirable curiosities in England, &c., Historical remarks of London, &c., The late wars in England, &c., and The history of Scotland and Ireland.	R. B., 1632?-1725?	1685 (1685)	Wing C7319; ESTC R21113	146,553	216

Woods and Rivers are their Larder If an European comes to see them or calls for Lodging at their House or Wigwam they give him the best place and first cut If they come to visit us they salute us with an It ah which is as much as to say Good be to you and set them down which is mostly on the Ground close to their Heels their Legs upright may be they speak not a word more but observe all Passages If you give them any thing to eat or drink well for they will not ask and be it little or much if it be with Kindness they are well pleased else they go away sullen but say nothing They are great Concealers of their own Resentments brought to it I believe by the Revenge that hath been practised among them in either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians A Tragical Instance fell out since I came into the Country A King's Daughter thinking her self slighted by her Husband in suffering another Woman to lie down between them rose up went out pluck't a Root out of ●he Ground and ate it upon which she immediately dyed and for which last Week he made an Offering to her Kindred for Atonement and liberty of Marriage as two others did to the Kindred of their Wives that dyed a natural Death For till Widowers have done so they must not marry again Some of the young Women are said to take undue liberty before Marriage for a Portion but when marryed chaste when with Child they know their Husbands no more till delivered and during their Month they touch no Meat they eat but with a Stick lest they should defile it nor do their Husbands frequent them till that time be expired But in Liberality they excell nothing is too good for their friend give them a fine Gun Coat or other thing it may pass twenty hands before it sticks light of Heart strong Affections but soon spent the most merry Creatures that live Feast and Dance perpetually they never have much nor want much Wealth circulateth like the Blood all parts partake and though none shall want what another hath yet exact Observers of Property Some Kings have sold others presented me with several parcels of Land the Pay or Presents I made them were not hoarded by the particular Owners but the neighbouring Kings and their Clans being present when the Goods were brought out the Parties chiefly concerned consulted what and to whom they should give them To every King then by the hands of a Person for that work appointed is a proportion sent so sorted and folded and with that Gravity that is admirable Then that King sub-divideth it in like manner among his Dependants they hardly leaving themselves an Equal share with one of their Subjects and be it on such occasions at Festivals or at their common Meals the Kings distribute and to themselves last They care for little because they want but little and the Reason is a little contents them In this they are sufficiently revenged on us if they are ignorant of our Pleasures they are also free from our Pains They are not disquieted with Bills of Lading and Exchange nor perplexed with Chancery-Suits and Exchequer-Reckonings We sweat and toil to live their pleasure feeds them I mean their Hunting Fishing and Fowling and this Table is spread every where they eat twice a day Morning and Evening their Seats and Table are the Ground Since the Europeans came into these parts they are grown great lovers of Strong Liquors Rum especially and for it exchange the richest of their Skins and Furs If they are heated with Liquors they are restless till they have enough to sleep that is their cry some more and I will go to sleep but when Drunk one of the most wretchedst Spectacles in the World In Sickness impatient to be cured and for it give any thing especially for their Children to whom they are extreamly natural they drink at those times a Teran or Decoction of some Roots in spring Water and if they eat any Flesh it must be of the Female of any Creature If they dye they bury them with their Apparel be they Men or Women and the nearest of Kin fling in something precious with them as a token of their Love Their Mourning is blacking of their Faces which they continue for a year They are choice of the Graves of their Dead for lest they should be lost by time and fall to common use they pick off the Grass that grows upon them and heap up the fallen Earth with great care and exactness These poor People are under a dark Night in things relating to Religion to be sure the Tradition of it yet they believe a God and Immortality without the help of Metaphysicks for they say There is a great King that made them who dwells in a glorious Countrey to the Southward of them and that the Souls of the good shall go thither where they shall live again Their Worship consists of two parts Sacrifice and Cantico Their Sacrifice is their first Fruits the first and fattest Buck they kill goeth to the fire where he is all burnt with a Mournful Ditty of him that performeth the Ceremony but with such marvellous Fervency and Labour of Body that he will even sweat to a foam The other part is their Cantico performed by round Dances sometimes words sometimes Songs then Shouts two being in the middle that begin and by Singing and Drumming on a Board direct the Chorus Their Postures in the Dance are very Antick and differing but all keep measure This is done with equal Earnestness and Labour but great appearance of Joy In the Fall when the Corn cometh in they begin to feast one another there have been two great Festivals already to which all come that will I was at one my self their Entertainment was a green Seat by a Spring under some shady Trees and twenty Bucks with hot Cakes of new Corn both Wheat and Beans which they make up in a square form in the leaves of the Stem and bake them in the Ashes and after that they fell to Dance But they that go must carry a small Present of their Money it may be six Pence which is made in the Bone of a Fish the black is with them as Gold the white Silver they call it all Wampum Their Government is by Kings which they call Sachema and those by Succession but always of the Mothers-side for Instance the Children of him that is now King will not succeed but his Brother by the Mother or the Children of his Sister whose Sons and after them the Children of her Daughters will Reign for no Woman inherits the Reason they render for this way of Descent is that their Issue may not be spurious Every King hath his Council and that consists of all the Old and Wise-men of his Nation which perhaps is two hundred People nothing of Moment is undertaken be it War Peace Selling of Land or Traffick