John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Praying around the fire with rattles 1590
Ten Indians, apparently six men and four women, are seated or kneeling in a circle round a spoke-shaped log fire. Five are holding gourd rattles. Four of the men wear feathers in their hair which is cut short at the side to leave a roach in the middle. The women wear their hair somewhat longer and looser. The figure (a man?) seen behind the flames apparently has long, untrimmed hair. Several men and women are wearing one-, two-, or three-strand necklaces and there is a suggestion that some have ear ornaments. One man clearly wears a breech-clout, one is evidently entirely unclothed, and two wear skin mantles draped over one shoulder. One woman wears a single apron-skirt, one has either a single or double apron-skirt, and one seems to be wearing only a cord around her waist. One woman is painted or tattooed on her arms and one leg, and another on one arm.
John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of Britain's efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina & Virginia in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant, as they are the most informed, eyewitness contemporary illustrations of an early Native American society of the North America's Eastern seaboard.
