Fuegian Vocabulary, 121 



two, and as it is tolerably thick the natives prefer it for their 

 spear-heads ; but for the arrow-heads they use the black glass. 

 Crown-glass was easy to work, but flaked off in rather short 

 pieces. I also experimented with some black flint, which happened 

 to be on board, and found it could be worked in precisely the 

 same way as the glass, but was certainly more difficult to fashion 

 into shape. Then I tried different kinds of working tools, and 

 soon found, to my surprise, that hard steel was the worst of all, 

 for it scratched and slipped off the edge of the glass without 

 chipping it at all ; whereas soft iron, which was much preferable, 

 could be manipulated so that it would bite only the extreme edge 

 of the glass, and by this means very thin and broad flakes could 

 be detached. Even an old bone harpoon-head answered very 

 well indeed, but of course was worn away more rapidly than the 

 soft iron. 



One day, when the old man of the first canoe party was on 

 board, and in an amiable mood, I succeeded in getting some 

 Fuegian words from him, a matter often previously attempted in 

 vain. As a rule, they merely repeat — and that most accurately — 

 the gestures or ejaculations which one makes in drawing their 

 attention to any particular object. I brought this old fellow into 

 my workshop, and pointed out to him several objects which I had 

 collected in the straits, and which were sure to be familiar to him. 

 After some time he got fairly hold of the idea, and then became 

 very communicative, eventually giving me the names for all the 

 familiar objects which I could at the time command. I subse- 

 quently checked the vocabulary thus obtained, by reversing the 

 process and repeating the words to him, and making him indicate 

 their meaning, and in this way I made certain that my list, small 

 though it was, had at all events the merit of being accurate. In 

 fact, I tested some of the words afterwards on another party of 

 natives, whom we met at Port Gallant, and found that they went 

 off all right 



