I decided I would like to know more about the particular tribes Smith came into contact with and the practices of body painting within these tribes. At one point, he wonders whether they are preparing to kill him, yet at each turn, the natives are more likely to feed this strange white man than to do him harm. Also, it is curious to notice that Smith is unsure of the purpose of any of these rituals. Smith described the natives at one point as “dancing.singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches being strangely painted, every one.” At another occasion, three of the men danced around a fire, their faces painted “such like devils…painted halfe blacke, half red: but all their eyes were painted white, and some red stroakes… along their cheeks.” All of the descriptions of the Native Americans’ body painting show them to use the colors red, white, and black for their art. As I re-read the selections written by Captain John Smith for this semester, I was interested in his descriptions of the natives and their painted appearances.
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