1832.] CANNIBALISM AMONG THE NATIVES. 217 



evidence of the boy taken by Mr. Low, and of Jemmy 

 Button, it is certainly true that when pressed in winter 

 by hunger they kill and devour their old women before 

 tliey kill their dogs ; the boy, being asked by Mr. Low 

 why they did this, answered, "Doggies catch otters, old 

 women no." This boy described the manner in which 

 they are killed by being held over smoke and thus choked ; 

 he imitated their screams as a joke, and described the 

 parts of their bodies which are considered best to eat. 

 Horrid as such a death by the hands of their friends and 

 relatives must be, the fears of the old women, when 

 hunger begins to press, are more painful to think of; we 

 were told that they then often run away into the mountains, 

 but that they are pursued by the men and brought back 

 to the slaughter-house at their own firesides ! 



Captain Fitz Roy could never ascertain that the Fuegians 

 have any distinct belief in a future life. They sometimes 

 bury their dead in caves, and sometimes in the mountain 

 forests ; we do not know what ceremonies they perform. 

 Jemmy Button would not eat land -birds, because "eat 

 dead men : " they are unwilling even to mention their 

 dead friends. We have no reason to believe that they 

 perform any sort of religious worship ; though perhaps 

 the muttering of the old man before he distiibuted the 

 putrid blubber to his famished party may be of this 

 nature. Each family or tribe has a wizard or conjuring 

 doctor, whose office we could never clearly ascertain. 

 Jemmy believed in dreams, though not, as I have said, 

 in the devil : I do not think that our Fuegians were much 

 more superstitious than some of the sailors ; for an old 

 quarter-master firmly believed that the successive heavy 

 gales, which we encountered off Cape Horn, were caused 

 by our having the Fuegians on board. The nearest 

 approach to a religious feeling which I heard of was 

 shown by York Minster, who, when Mr. Bynoe shot 

 some very young ducklings as specimens, declared in the 

 most solemn manner, **Oh, Mr. Bynoe, much rain, snow, 

 blow much." This was evidently a retributive punishment 

 for wasting human food. In a wild and excited manner 

 he also related that his brother one day, whilst returning 

 to pick up some dead birds which he had left on the 

 coast, observed some feathers blown by the wind. His 

 brother said (York imitating his manner), "What that?" 

 ;uid crawling onwards, he peeped over the clifT. and sa\^ 



