CHAP. X.J RELIGION OF THE FU EG lANS. 215 



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 suc- 

 cessive heavy gales, which we encountered off Cape Horn, were 

 caused by our having the Fuegians on board. The nearest ap- 

 proach 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 coa^t, observed some feathers blown by the wind. 

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

 and crawling onwards, he peeped over the cliff, and saw " wild 

 man" picking his birds ; he crawled a little nearer, and tlien 

 hurled down a great stone and killed him. York declared for a 

 long time afterwards storms raged, and much rain and snow fell. 

 As far as we could make out, he seemed to consider the elements 

 themselves as the avenging agents : it is evident in this case, how 

 naturally, in a race a little more advanced in culture, the ele- 

 ments would become personified. What the "bad wild men" 

 were, has always appeared to me most mysterious : from what 

 York said, when we found the place like the form of a hare, 

 where a single man had slept the night before, I should have 

 thought that they were thieves who had been driven from their 

 tribes ; but other obscure speeches made me doubt this ; I have 

 sometimes imagined that the most probable explanation was 

 that they were insane. 



The diflferent tribes have no government or chief ; yet each 

 is surrounded by other hostile tribes, speaking different dialects, 

 and separated from each other only by a deserted border or 

 neutral territory : the cause of their warfare appears to be the 

 means of subsistence. Their country is a broken mass of wild 

 rocks, lofty hills, and useless forests: and these are viewed 

 through mists and endless storms. The habitable land is re- 

 duced to the stones on the beach ; in search of food they are 

 compelled unceasingly to wander from spot to spot, and so steep 



