204 TIERRA. DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. x. 



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 sudi 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 are 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 distributed 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 

 quartermaster 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 feeding 

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

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

 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, lie 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 elements 

 would become personified. " What the " bad wild men " were, has 



