440 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MODERN SAVAGES Concluded. 



reading almost any account of savages, it is impossible 

 JL not to admire the skill with, which they use their rude 

 weapons and implements. The North American Indian will 

 send an arrow right through a horse, or even a buffalo. The 

 African savage will kill the elephant, and the Chinook fears 

 not to attack even the whale. Captain Grey tells us that he 

 has often seen the Australians kill a pigeon with a spear, at 

 a distance of thirty paces.* Speaking of the same people, 

 Mr. Stanbridge asserts that "it is a favourite feat on the 

 Murray to dive into the river, spear in hand, and come up 

 with a fish upon it." f Woodes Rogers says that the Cali- 

 fornian Indians used to dive and strike the fish under water 

 with wooden spears, J and Falkner tells us that some of the 

 Patagonian tribes live chiefly on fish, "which they catch 

 either by diving, or striking them with their darts." Wallace, 

 again, says the same of the Brazilian Indians. || The South 

 Sea Islanders are particularly active in the water. They dive 

 after fish which " take refuge under the coral rock ; thither 

 the diver pursues him, and brings him up with a finger in 

 each eye."^[ They are even more than a match for the 



* Grey, I.e. vol. ii., p. 285. 



f On the Aborigines of Victoria. Ethn. Trans., New Ser., vol. i.> p. 293. 



J Callander's Voyages, vol. iii., p. 331. Patagonia, p. 111. 



|| Travels on the Amazon, p. 488. IT Wilson, I.e. p. 385. 



