She was as inquisitive as any young girl, savage or civilized,
and she was so full of kindly attentions to the captain, and
bestowed on him so many smiles and looks of wondering curiosity,
that Smith made much of her in return, gave her some trifling
presents and asked her name.
Now it was one of the many singular customs of the American
Indians never to tell their own names, nor even to allow them to
be spoken to strangers by any of their own immediate kindred. The
reason for this lay in the superstition which held that the
speaking of one's real name gave to the stranger to whom it was
spoken a magical and harmful influence over such person. For the
Indian religion was full of what is called the supernatural.
So, when the old chief of the Pow-ha-tans (who, for this very
reason, was known to the colonists by the name of his tribe,
Pow-ha-tan, rather than by his real name of Wa-bun-so-na-cook)
was asked his little daughter's name, he hesitated, and then gave
in reply the nick-name by which he often called her,
Po-ca-hun-tas, the "little tomboy"--for this agile young maiden,
by reason of her relationship to the head chief, was allowed much
more freedom and fun than was usually the lot of Indian girls,
who were, as a rule, the patient and uncomplaining little drudges
of every Indian home and village.
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