CANNIBALISM. ABSENCE OF RELIGION. 437 



laid in store for a season of want. Their principal food, 

 however, consists of limpets, mussels, and other shell-fish. 



Admiral Fitzroy entertains no doubt that the Fuegians 

 are cannibals. " Almost* always at war with adjoining 

 tribes, they seldom meet but a hostile encounter is the re- 

 sult ; and then those who are vanquished and taken, if not 

 already dead, are killed and eaten by the conquerors. The 

 arms and breast are eaten by the women ; the men eat the 

 legs, and the trunk is thrown into the sea." Again, in 

 severe winters, when they can obtain no other food, they 

 take "the oldest woman of their party, hold her head over a 

 thick smoke, made by burning green wood, and pinching her 

 throat, choke her. They then devour every particle of the 

 flesh, not excepting the trunk, as in the former case." When 

 asked why they did not rather kill their dogs, they said, 

 "Dog catch iappo," i.e. otters. 



Like Decker, Admiral Fitzroy " never witnessed or heard 

 of any act of a decidedly religious nature." t Still some of 

 the natives suppose that there is "a great black man" in the 

 woods who knows everything, "who cannot be escaped, and 

 who influences the weather according to men's conduct." 

 "When a person dies, they carry the body far into the 

 woods, J "place it upon some broken boughs, or pieces of 

 solid wood, and then pile a great quantity of branches over 

 the corpse." 



They make canoes of large pieces of bark sewn together. 

 In the bottom they make a fireplace of clay, for they always 

 keep fires alight, though with the help of iron pyrites they 

 soon obtain sparks if any accident happens. The Chonos 

 Indians, who in most respects resemble the Fuegians, have 

 much better canoes. These are formed of planks, which are 



* I.e. p. 183. 



f See also Weddell, Voyage to South Pole, p. 179 ; The Voice of Pity, vol. vi., 

 p. 92, etc. 

 J I.e. p. 181. 



