196 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. x. 



compared it to a man clearing Ins 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 remembered 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 of 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 recognized. How can this faculty be explained ? is it a 

 consequence of the more practised 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 Euro- 

 peans 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 Boy 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 instruct them in religion 

 at his own expense. To settle these natives in their own country, 



