By The Mouth Of The Straits In
The Text, Must Be Understood What Is Called The Narrows Of The
Hope.
- E.]
From one of these boys, after he had learnt the Dutch language, they had
the following intelligence. The larger of the two islands was named
Castemme by the natives, and the tribe inhabiting it Enoo. The
smaller island was called Talche. Both were frequented by great
numbers of penguins, the flesh of which served the natives as food, and
their skins for cloathing. Their only habitations were caves. The
neighbouring continent abounded in ostriches, which they also used as
food. The natives of these dreary regions were distinguished into
tribes, each having their respective residences. The Kemenetes dwelt
in Kaesay; the Kennekin in Karamay; the Karaiks in Morina: All
these are of the ordinary size, but broad-breasted, and painted all
over; the men tying up their pudenda in a string, and the women covering
their parts of shame with the skins of a penguin; the men wearing their
hair long, while that of the women was kept very short; and both sexes
going naked, except cloaks made of penguin skins, reaching only to the
waist. There was also a fourth tribe, called Tirimenen, dwelling in
Coin, who were of a gigantic stature, being ten or twelve feet
high,[73] and continually at war with the other tribes.
[Footnote 73: This absurdity might be pardoned in the ignorant savage
boy, who knew neither numerals nor measures; but in the grave reporters
it is truly ridiculous, and yet the lie has been renewed almost down to
the close of the eighteenth century.
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