If Bread Be Given
To The Indians, They Chew And Spit It Out Again, Seldom Choosing To Swallow It.
Salt Beef And Pork They Like Rather Better, But Spirits They Never Could
Be Brought To Taste A Second Time.
The only domestic animal they have is the dog, which in their language
is called Dingo, and a good deal resembles the fox dog of England.
These animals are equally shy of us, and attached to the natives.
One of them
is now in the possession of the Governor, and tolerably well reconciled
to his new master. As the Indians see the dislike of the dogs to us,
they are sometimes mischievous enough to set them on single persons
whom they chance to meet in the woods. A surly fellow was one day out
shooting, when the natives attempted to divert themselves in this manner
at his expense. The man bore the teazing and gnawing of the dog at his heels
for some time, but apprehending at length, that his patience might
embolden them to use still farther liberties, he turned round and shot poor
Dingo dead on the spot: the owners of him set off with the utmost expedition.
There is no part of the behaviour of these people, that has puzzled us more,
than that which relates to their women. Comparatively speaking we have seen
but few of them, and those have been sometimes kept back with every symptom
of jealous sensibility; and sometimes offered with every appearance
of courteous familiarity. Cautious, however, of alarming the feelings
of the men on so tender a point, we have constantly made a rule of treating
the females with that distance and reserve, which we judged most likely
to remove any impression they might have received of our intending aught,
which could give offence on so delicate a subject. And so successful
have our endeavours been, that a quarrel on this head has in no instance,
that I know of, happened. The tone of voice of the women, which is pleasingly
soft and feminine, forms a striking contrast to the rough guttural
pronunciation of the men. Of the other charms of the ladies I shall be silent,
though justice obliges me to mention, that, in the opinion of some amongst us,
they shew a degree of timidity and bashfulness, which are, perhaps,
inseparable from the female character in its rudest state. It is not a little
singular, that the custom of cutting off the two lower joints of the
little finger of the left hand, observed in the Society Islands,
is found here among the women, who have for the most part undergone
this amputation. Hitherto we have not been able to trace out the cause
of this usage. At first we supposed it to be peculiar to the married women,
or those who had borne children; but this conclusion must have been erroneous,
as we have no right to believe that celibacy prevails in any instance,
and some of the oldest of the women are without this distinction;
and girls of a very tender age are marked by it.
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