Caption:
Late 16th-century engraving by Theodor de Bry, after a watercolor by Jacques le Moyne, titled War Dance. The engraving shows the chief preparing for battle. Two containers of water were used in the ritual. One container, representing the enemy's blood, was splashed over the men; another was poured over the fire (in the hope that the enemy would likewise be extinguished). Although de Bry never set foot in the New World himself, he made many copies of watercolors by the French artist le Moyne depicting the Timucua tribe of Florida. They are some of the earliest, if not necessarily the most accurate, surviving records of the Native Americans of the period.