KELIGION. 83 



snails, part of a toad, a snake, roots and herbs. The 

 snakes they will not eat without they have been pre- 

 sent at the time they were killed, being fearful that 

 the snake, on being wounded, should have bitten 

 himself. These people are remarkable for accuracy 

 of vision and keen scent. For the former quality 

 they are occasionally carried out by whaleships, for 

 the purpose of looking out from the masthead ; and 

 I have been told by those Avho were shipmates with 

 them, that the}'' could discern a spout or sail at as 

 great a distance with the naked eye, as a practised 

 hand could with the glass. The last mentioned 

 qualit}' causes them to be employed by the govern- 

 ment in tracking convicts who have taken to the 

 bush, by captains of whaleships to recover deserters, 

 and by the settlers to track up their stray cattle. In 

 all these pursuits they are said to be infallible ; 

 although when they arrive at the runaway, if he pre- 

 sent a bold face to them, they will not molest him ; 

 and unless they have a white man with them to urge 

 them on, they wall retreat empty-handed. They have 

 a wholesome dread of fire-arms, and some of their 

 race having seen a revolving pistol, has impressed on 

 most of them the supernatural character of the 

 weapon ; and the " little fellow," as they call it, is to 

 them a great bug-a-boo. 



On the strictest inquiry I could not discover that they 

 had any religion. The only inkling that I received 

 of their ideas of hereafter, was the fear they expressed 

 of jing-ge, a word synonymous to the English word 

 devil ; w^hether they have gleaned this idea from their 

 intercourse with the whites, or that it is traditionary 

 with them, I have no means of ascertaining. 



