chap, i.] STARVATION IN THE KYTCH COUNTRY ,. 73 
from their burrows, as we should for rabbits. They 
are the most pitiable set of savages that can be 
imagined; so emaciated, that they have no visible 
posteriors ; they look as though they had been planed 
off, and their long thin legs and arms give them a 
peculiar gnat-like appearance. At night they crouch 
close to the fires, lying in the smoke to escape the 
clouds of mosquitoes. At this season the country is a 
vast swamp, the only dry spots being the white ant¬ 
hills ; in such places the natives herd like wild animals, 
simply rubbing themselves with wood-ashes to keep 
out the cold. 
Jan. 20th .—The river from this spot turns sharp 
to the east, but an arm equally broad comes from 
S. 20 E. to this point. There is no stream from this 
arm. The main stream runs round the angle with a 
rapid current of about two and a half miles per hour. 
The natives say that this arm of dead water extends 
for three or four days sailing, and is then lost in the 
high reeds. My reis Diabb declares this to be a mere 
backwater, and that it is not connected with the main 
river by any positive channel. 
So miserable are the natives of the Kytch tribe, that 
they devour both skins and bones of all dead animals ; 
the bones are pounded between stones, and when re¬ 
duced to powder they are boiled to a kind of porridge ; 
