THE SKILFULNESS OF SAVAGES. 441 



shark, which they attack fearlessly with a knife. If they 

 are unarmed " they all surround him and force him ashore, 

 if they can but once get him into the surf ;" but even if he 

 escapes they continue their bathing without the least fear. * 

 Ellis more cautiously says only that " when armed they have 

 sometimes been known to attack a shark in the water, "f 

 The Andaman Islanders also are said to dive and catch fish 

 under water ; J and Rutherford makes a similar statement as 

 regards the New Zealanders. The Esquimaux in his kayak 

 will actually turn somersets in the water. Skyring saw a 

 Fuegian who " threw stones from each hand with astonishing 

 force and precision. His first stone struck the master with 

 much force, broke a powder-horn which hung round his neck, 

 and nearly knocked him backwards. " In his description of 

 the Hottentots, Kolben says, || that their dexterity in throwing 

 the "hassagaye and rackum- stick, strikes every witness of 



it with the highest admiration If a Hottentot, in the 



chase of a hare, deer, or wild goat, comes but within thirty 

 or forty yards of the creature, away flies the rackum-stick 

 and down falls the creature, generally pierced quite through 

 the body." The death of Goliath is a well-known instance 

 of skill in the use of the sling ; and we are told also that in 

 the tribe of Benjamin there was a corps of " seven hundred 

 chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an 

 hair-breadth, and not miss."1T The Brazilian Indians kill 

 turtles with bows and arrows ; but if they shot direct at the 

 animal, the arrow would glance off the smooth hard shell, 

 therefore they shoot up into the air, so that the arrow falls 

 nearly vertically on the shell, which it is thus enabled to 

 penetrate.** 



What an amount of practice must be required to obtain 



* Wilson, I.e. p. 368. f Polynesian Researches, vol. i., p. 178. 



J Mouat, I.e. pp. 310, 333. Fitzroy, I.e. vol. i., p. 398. 



|| Kolben, I.e. vol. i., p. 243. H Judges xx. 16. ** Wallace's Amazon, p. 466. 



