Edited by Madison Storey
But I was fain1 to go and look after something to satisfy my hunger, and going among the wigwams2, I went into one and there found a squaw3 who showed herself very kind to me, and gave me a piece of bear. I put it into my pocket, and came home, but could not find an opportunity to broil it, for fear they would get it from me4, and there it lay all that day and night in my stinking pocket. In the morning I went to the same squaw, who had a kettle of ground nuts5 boiling. I asked her to let me boil my piece of bear in her kettle, which she did, and gave me some ground nuts to eat with it: and I cannot but think how pleasant it was to me. I have sometime seen bear baked very handsomely among the English6, and some like it, but the thought that it was bear made me tremble. But now what was savory to me, one would think would be enough to turn the stomach of a brute creature78.
One bitter cold day I could find no room to sit down before the fire. I went out, and could not tell what to do, but I went in to another wigwam, where they were also sitting round the fire, but the squaw laid a skin for me, and bid me sit down, and gave me some ground nuts, and bade me come again; and told me they would buy me1011, if they were able, and yet these were strangers to me that I never saw before.
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To be delighted or glad, rejoice. (OED). ↩
Any of several types of dwelling used by certain eastern North American Indian peoples consisting of a framework of wooden poles, typically with a domed or conical roof and covered with bark, hides, or reed mats. (OED). ↩
A North American Indian woman or wife. Now generally considered offensive. (OED). ↩
Mary Rowlandson is afraid of and troubled by food theft, as she had corn stolen from her in the Seventh Remove. ↩
Baked, or roast bear recipes are present in early American cook books, such as Miss Corson’s Practical American Cookery and Household Management, by Juliet Corson, 1885. https://books.google.ca/books/about/Miss_Corson_s_Practical_American_Cookery.html?id=QQbbiptULZcC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false ↩
Ground nuts, also called Indian potatoes, are underground tubers, similar to potatoes, but classified as legumes. ↩
Rowlandson’s dramatization of eating bear and her change in taste denote her fears of becoming similar to her Indigenous captors. ↩
Sentence structure changed by editor for clarification. ↩
Image sourced from https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/groundnuts ↩
Some captives in American-Indian wars were adopted into the captor’s tribe, or enslaved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captives_in_American_Indian_Wars ↩
Rowlandson is an American captive of King Phillip’s War, also known as the First Indian War. The war took place in southern New England from 1675-1676. https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/king-philips-war ↩