The First And Last
Word Was "Yammerschooner." When, Entering Some Quiet
Little Cove, We Have Looked Round And Thought To Pass A Quiet
Night, The Odious Word "Yammerschooner" Has Shrilly Sounded
From Some Gloomy Nook, And Then The Little Signal-Smoke
Has Curled Up To Spread The News Far And Wide.
On leaving
some place we have said to each other, "Thank heaven, we
have at last fairly left these
Wretches!" when one more faint
hallo from an all-powerful voice, heard at a prodigious
distance, would reach our ears, and clearly could we distinguish
- "yammerschooner." But now, the more Fuegians the merrier;
and very merry work it was. Both parties laughing,
wondering, gaping at each other; we pitying them, for giving
us good fish and crabs for rags, etc.; they grasping at the
chance of finding people so foolish as to exchange such splendid
ornaments for a good supper. It was most amusing to
see the undisguised smile of satisfaction with which one
young woman with her face painted black, tied several bits
of scarlet cloth round her head with rushes. Her husband,
who enjoyed the very universal privilege in this country of
possessing two wives, evidently became jealous of all the
attention paid to his young wife; and, after a consultation
with his naked beauties, was paddled away by them.
Some of the Fuegians plainly showed that they had a fair
notion of barter. I gave one man a large nail (a most valuable
present) without making any signs for a return; but he
immediately picked out two fish, and handed them up on the
point of his spear.
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