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16 The way of yr making of their men. There is a great deal a do, in making their Men. That is in receiving their young people into unclear number of their men, before which they cannot be of ye Kings Counsell, or capable of any pre? ferment, & they cannot know their God (as they say) when he appears to them. The manner is this; They give them a drink made of a Root wc? growes amongst them, which makes them run wild? Then they put them all naked into a House where they beat them soundly, & after that they turn them out into ye Woods, & put bowes & Arrows into their hands where they continue perfectly wild & mad, for several weeks: marginal note And when they come to themselves, they re= member nothing of their former life; They forget their Father & Mother, their wife, & every thing they knew before.

It is certain, that this drink does mightily stupefy them for a long time, and if they take a large dose of it, they forget their very language & everything else. If the dose be very moderat, after sometime, they remember what they had unclear But they say they must not Let the Indians know it when it is so, for then they would be made to undergo the whole cere= mony of it over again. marginal note