206 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [chap. x. 



articulate. Captain Cook has compared it to a man clearing his 

 throat, but certainly no European ever cleared his throat with so 

 many hoarse, guttural, and clicking sounds. 



They are excellent mimics: as often as we coughed or yawned, 

 or made any odd motion, they immediately imitated us. Some 

 of our party began to squint and look awry ; but one of the 

 young Fuegians (whose whole face was painted black, excepting 

 a white band across his eyes) succeeded in making far more 

 hideous grimaces. They could repeat with perfect correctness 

 each word in any sentence we addressed them, and they remem- 

 bered such words for some time. Yet we Europeans all know 

 how difficult it is to distinguish apart the sounds in a foreign 

 language. Which of us, for instance, could follow an American 

 Indian through a sentence of more than three words? All 

 savages appear to possess, to an uncommon degree, this power ot 

 mimicry. I was told, almost in the same words, of the same 

 ludicrous habit among the Caffres : the Australians, likewise, 

 have long been notorious for being able to imitate and describe 

 the gait of any man, so that he may be recognised. How can 

 this faculty be explained ? is it a consequence of the more prac- 

 tised habits of perception and keener senses, common to all men 

 in a savage state, as compared with those long civilized ? 



When a song was struck up by our party, I thought the 

 Fuegians would have fallen down with astonishment. With 

 equal surprise they viewed our dancing ; but one of the young 

 men, when asked, had no objection to a little waltzing. Little 

 accustomed to Europeans as they appeared to be, yet they knew 

 and dreaded our fire-arms ; nothing would tempt them to take a 

 gun in their hands. They begged for knives, calling them by 

 the Spanish word " cuchilla." They explained also what they 

 wanted, by acting as if they had a piece of blubber in their 

 mouth, and then pretending to cut instead of tear it. 



I have not as yet noticed the Fuegians whom we had on 

 board. During the former voyage of the Adventure and Beagle 

 in 1826 to 1830, Captain Fitz Roy seized on a party of natives, 

 as hostages for the loss of a boat, which had been stolen, to the 

 great jeopardy of a party employed on the survey ; and some of 

 these natives, as well as a child whom he bought for a pearl-button, 

 he took with him to England, determining to educate them and 



