Seventeenth-Century Dogs

Bloodhound

 

While writing historical stories, I have researched a lot of topics, including dogs. I fully admit I'm a dog lover, but I'm also not the sort of writer who will place something into a story simply because I like it. I also aspire to be realistic in my animal portrayal. For instance, I'm a bird lover too, and it annoys me to no end to see parrots shown as nothing more than talking machines that conveniently say the right thing to help solve a plot.

The first time I included a dog in one of my stories was my American Civil War ghost story Whispers from the Grave. A dog also fit into my plot for the modern portion of the story. I have Belgian sheepdogs, and a Belgian personality ideally suited what I had in mind. That made writing the story much easier because I didn't need to research the breed. I called my literary Belgian "Saber" to fit the Civil War themed plot. As it turns out, I now have a Belgian with that name. He, of course, was named after the dog in the book.

After finishing the sequel to Whispers from the Grave, I began writing my Dreaming series, where the setting is in the 17th century. In Virginia, the tribal tidewater Natives, commonly referred to as the Powhatan, had hunting dogs that appeared like a cross between a hound and a wolf. As a group of people, they didn't bury animals, nor keep dogs as pets. But in at least one instance, a dog was found buried with an elderly woman. It was placed in a sleeping position on top of the woman's feet. The dog's skeleton showed no sign of trauma, so it's doubtful it was buried as part of a ritual. Instead, the gesture most likely speaks volumes as to how that particular dog was regarded by that individual woman.

The dreaming in my book is a cunning woman's shamanic journey, and the cunning folk had familiar spirits. Common familiar spirits of the time were hares, cats, toads, and of course, dogs. I discovered my cunning woman's familiar spirit after I had read about John Smith giving the paramount chief Powhatan a white greyhound as a gift.

Ironically, I have read on some greyhound sites that the breed didn't arrive in North America until a much later date. While John Smith wasn't always truthful in his writings, I had doubted the subject of a greyhound making the journey to Virginia would be noteworthy enough for him to embellish. To back my belief, I recently discovered the laws of the First General Assembly of Virginia in 1619. Any dog of quality was not supposed to be given to the Indians. Greyhounds were specifically mentioned in this law.

Besides greyhounds, the English commonly had mastiffs, bloodhounds, and generic looking spaniels. Mastiffs weren't the big, friendly dogs that we commonly think of today. They tended to be kept as guard dogs and were fiercely protective. Spiked collars were common--for protection of the dog from predators, like wolves and bears. They were also used in wars as fighting dogs.

Bloodhounds were tracking dogs, much like they have been throughout the centuries. Unlike today, they came in many different colors. Spaniels were hunting dogs and were bred to flush game from dense brush. During the 17th century, with the development of flintlocks, they specifically became gun dogs. There, of course, were other dog breeds during the century, but I have focused on the ones that I've found mentioned in the writings from Virginia.

Kim Murphy

www.KimMurphy.net

17th-Century Medicine

A couple of months ago while visiting Trinity College in Dublin, I saw an exhibit in celebration of 400 years of medicine. I was intrigued by the display. It had an original copy of the classic John Gerard's Herbal, or Generall Historie of Plantes. The glass cases also contained tools used by surgeons throughout the years. Notably absent was any mention of the cunning folk. Without saying as much, the exhibit really meant 400 years of male history, namely doctors and physicians. Anyone who was not a learned physician was simply regarded as a "quack".

What many people don't realize is that during the 17th century there were few doctors. Even fewer people could afford the services of a doctor, and those who could often didn't trust them. Most healers were herbalists and/or users of magic. Anthropologists commonly refer to such healers as shamans.

In writing The Dreaming, I discovered that I needed guidance from the era I was writing about. I first looked to Gerard's Herbal, but it wasn't easy getting my hands on a copy. Instead, I turned to Nicholas Culpeper's Complete Herbal. Copies of this book are still easily available, and I was able to get a late 20th-century edition. Don't let a modern edition fool you. Culpeper's words were left intact. The book was, however, typeset in a modern font, making it a little easier to read.

Because my stories are set in Virginia, I also used medicinal guides that showed me what plants the Native Americans used. For instance, when I portrayed an outbreak of small pox, the Natives had no remedies. It was a new disease to the Americas and nearly wiped out the indigenous population. My cunning woman was all too familiar with the disease, and Culpeper let me know that saffron was a good herb of choice. But saffron was limited in Virginia because it had to be shipped from England. Thankfully, all was not lost. An African servant knew of another treatment called variolation.

In another scene, a teenager was bitten by a poisonous snake. In this case, my healer used a knife to make small incisions over the fang marks. She then sucked out the poison. I had been able to verify this treatment was indeed practiced by the Native people in the Virginia area for snake bites and thought it would make a good addition. It's only been within the last thirty to forty years that the method has fallen out of favor with modern emergency crews.

While these are only a couple of examples of 17th-century medicine, I think they give the general idea. There were gifted healers long before modern physicians.

Kim Murphy
www.KimMurphy.Net

The Dreaming

Several years ago I read a story about witch trials in Virginia. Surprisingly, most of the trials predated Salem. Except for some people who live in the coastal region of the state, few realize that Virginia was the first to hold witch trials on the North American continent.

Those stories became a journey for me. One that I had no idea where it might lead, but I think that's true with most writers. Not only were the Virginia trials overshadowed by Salem, but few records have survived to modern times. Thanks to the American Civil War, many of the 17^th-century records were burned during the 19^th century (another area of history that I know very well!).

Unlike Salem, only one woman was recorded to have been executed. But how many records were lost? No one will ever know. The journey of writing my story led me to read more about England where the colonists originated from. Fellow Hoyden, Mary Sharratt shared some of her research and introduced me to Emma Wilby and her wonderful book Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic.

With an anthropology degree, I have always been intrigued by shamans. Wilby's book hit an instant chord with me, but historians disagree whether the cunning folk ever reached the American shores. I dug deeper. Two of the Virginia trials sounded very much like the accused were cunning women. Between that possibility and the fact that cunning folk were very common in the 17^th century, I had a basis for my story. Yet, something was missing.

When the colonists first arrived on the Virginia shores, the land was already inhabited. Besides the John Smith/Pocahontas myth, I knew nothing about the Powhatan people. In my pursuit to learn more, not only did I read books, but I visited the historic sites. Jamestown is the original site where the colonists made the first permanent English settlement in North America, and Jamestown Settlement is a living history park where the 17^th century comes alive. The Citie of Henricus is also a living history park portraying the second English settlement. Like Jamestown Settlement, it includes how the Indians of the time lived, but unlike Jamestown, Henricus did not survive Opechancanough's organized attacks in 1622. Also on my stops, I included visits to the Pamunkey and Mattaponi museums. The paramount chief Powhatan was a member of the Pamunkey tribe, and his daughter, Pocahontas was Mattaponi (the Algonquian speaking tribes of Virginia traced their lineage through the women). These two tribes were part of the Powhatan chiefdom and still live on reservations in Virginia to this day.

After four years of researching and writing, I was drawn into a world that I could have never imagined. In my story, The Dreaming: Walks Through Mist I have blended modern times with fantasy and the 17^th century. As many of the tribal people teach, my path has taken me along a circle, leading me home. Now my journey is complete.

I look forward to seeing where my next journey leads.

Kim Murphy

www.KimMurphy.Net