New England Aboriginals in “Voyages, 1613”

At this place we saw some five or six hundred Indians who were all naked except for their privy parts, which they cover with a little piece of deer or sealskin. The women are the same, and, like the men, cover their parts with skins or leaves. Both men and women wear their hair neatly combed and braided in various ways, after the fashion of the Indians at Saco, and are well-proportioned in body, with olive-coloured skins. They adorn themselves with feathers, wampum beads, and other knick-knacks, which they arrange very neatly after the manner of embroidery. Their arms consist of bows, arrows, and clubs. They are not so much great hunters as good fishermen and tillers of the soil.

Source: Samuel de Champlain, "[New England Aboriginals in] Voyages, 1613" in The Works of Samuel de Champlain, vol. II, H.P.Biggar (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1925).

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