1770 HUTS AND FURNITURE 315 



a few bushes and grass a foot or two high to shelter them 

 from the wind This probably is their custom while they 

 travel from place to place, and sleep upon the road, in 

 situations where they do not intend to make any stay. 



The only furniture belonging to these houses, that we 

 saw at least, was oblong vessels of bark made by the simple 

 contrivance of tying up the ends of a longish piece with a 

 withe, which not being cut off serves for a handle : these 

 we imagined served as buckets to fetch water from the 

 springs, which may sometimes be distant. We have reason to 

 suppose that when they travel these are carried by the women 

 from place to place ; indeed, during the few opportunities we 

 had of seeing the women they were generally employed in 

 some laborious occupation, as fetching wood, gathering shell- 

 fish, etc. The men, again, maybe constantly carry their 

 arms in their hands, three or four lances in the one, and 

 the machine with which they throw them in the other. 

 These serve the double object of defending them from their 

 enemies and striking any animal or fish they may meet 

 with. Each has also a small bag about the size of a 

 moderate cabbage -net hanging loose upon his back and 

 fastened to a small string which passes over the crown of 

 his head. This seems to contain all their earthly treasures : 

 a lump or two of paint, some fish-hooks and lines, shells 

 to make the fish-hooks of, points of darts, resin, and their 

 usual ornaments, were the general contents. 



Thus live these, I had almost said happy, people, content 

 with little, nay, almost nothing ; far enough removed from 

 the anxieties attending upon riches, or even the possession 

 of what we Europeans call common necessaries : anxieties 

 intended, maybe, by Providence to counterbalance the 

 pleasure arising from the possession of wished-for attain- 

 ments consequently increasing with increasing wealth, and in 

 some measure keeping up the balance of happiness between 

 the rich and the poor. From them appear how small are 

 the real wants of human nature, which we Europeans have 

 increased to an excess which would certainly appear incredible 

 to these people could they be told it ; nor shall we cease to 



