SKILFULNESS OF SAVAGES. 545 



swim after it, catch it in the net," and so bring it to shore.* 

 The Esquimaux in his kayak can actually turn somersaults in 

 the water. Skyringf saw a Fuegian who " threw stones from 

 each hand with astonishing force and precision. His first 

 stone struck the master with much force, broke a powder-horn 

 which hung round his neck, and nearly knocked him back- 

 wards." In his description of the Hottentots, Kolben saysj 

 that their dexterity in throwing the " hassagaye and rackum- 

 stick strikes every witness of it with the highest admiration. 

 .... If a Hottentot, in the chase of a hare, deer, or wild goat, 

 comes but within thirty or forty yards of the creature, away 

 flies the rackum-stick and down falls the creature, generally 

 pierced quite through the body." The death of Goliath is a 

 well-known instance of skill in the use of the sling ; and we 

 are told also that in the tribe of Benjamin there was a corps 

 of " seven hundred chosen men left-handed ; every one could 

 sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss."S The Brazilian 



*- ' t3 



Indians kill turtles with bows and arrows ; but if they aimed 

 direct at the animal, the arrow would glance off the smooth 

 hard shell ; therefore they shoot up into the air, so that the 

 arrow falls nearly vertically on the shell, which it is thus 

 enabled to penetrate. || 



What an amount of practice must be required to obtain 

 such skill as this ! How true also must the weapons be ! 

 Indeed, it is very evident that each distinct type of flint im- 

 plement must have been designed for some distinct purpose. 

 Thus the different forms of arrow-head, of harpoon, or of 

 stone axe, cannot have been intended to be used in the same 

 manner. Among the North American Indians the arrows 

 used in hunting were so made that when the shaft was drawn 

 out of the wound the head came out also ; while in the war- 



* History of the Abipones, vol. i. Kolben, I.e. vol. i. p. 243. 

 p. 343. Judges x. 16. 



t Fitzroy, 1. c. vol. i. p. 398. || Wallace's Amazon, p. 466. 



2 N 



