About this time their return was looked for, a hearing by no means pleasant to me; I was therefore determined to enjoy myself as long as they were absent, and make the most of the good fare I was possessed of, to the pleasure of which I thought a little cleanliness might in some measure contribute; I therefore went to a brook, and taking off my shirt, which might be said to be alive with vermin, set myself about to wash it; which having done as well as I could, and hung on a bush to dry, I heard a bustle about the wigwams, and soon perceived that the women were preparing to depart, having stripped their wigwams of their bark covering, and carried it into their canoes. Putting on, therefore, my shirt just as it was, I hastened to join them, having a great desire of being present at one of their fishing parties.
It was my lot to be put into the canoe with my two patronesses and some others who assisted in rowing; we were in all four canoes. After rowing some time, they gained such an offing as they required, where the water here was about eight or ten fathoms deep, and there lay upon their oars. And now the youngest of the two women, taking a basket in her mouth, jumped overboard, and diving to the bottom, continued under water an amazing time; when she had filled the basket with sea-eggs, she came up to the boat-side, and delivering it so filled to the other women in the boat, they took out the contents and returned it to her. The diver then, after having taken a short time to breathe, went down and up again with the same success, and so several times for the space of half an hour. It seems as if Providence had endued this people with a kind of amphibious nature, as the sea is the only source from whence almost all their subsistence is derived. This element too, being here very boisterous, and falling with a most heavy surf upon a rugged coast, very little, except some seal, is to be got any where but in the quiet bosom of the deep. What occasions this reflection, is the early propensity I had so frequently observed in the children of these savages to this occupation, who, even at the age of three years, might be seen crawling upon their hands and knees among the rocks and breakers, from which they would tumble themselves into the sea without regard to the cold, which is here often intense, and shewing no fear of the noise and roaring of the surf.
This sea-egg is a shell-fish, from which several prickles project in all directions, by means whereof it removes itself from place to place. In it are found four or five yolks, resembling the inner divisions of an orange, which are of a very nutritive quality and excellent flavour.
The water was at this time extremely cold, and when the divers got into the boats, they seemed greatly benumbed; and it is usual with them after this exercise, if they are near enough their wigwams, to run to the fire, to which presenting one side, they rub and chafe it for some time; then turning the other, use it in the same manner till the circulation of the blood is restored. This practice, if it has no worse effect, must occasion their being more susceptible of the impressions of cold than if they waited the gradual advances of their natural warmth in the open air. I leave it to the decision of the gentlemen of the faculty, whether this too hasty approach to the fire may not subject them to a disorder I have observed among them, called the elephantiasis, or swelling of the legs.[118]
[118] There are two very different disorders incident to the human body, which bear the same name, derived from some resemblance they hold with different parts of the animal so well known in the countries to which these disorders are peculiar. That which was first so named is the leprosy, which brings a scurf on the skin not unlike the hide of an elephant. The other affects the patient with such enormous swelling of the legs and feet, that they give the idea of those shapeless pillars which support that creature; and therefore this disease has also been called elephantiasis by the Arabian physicians; who, together with the Malabrians, among whom it is endemial, attribute it to the drinking bad waters, and the too sudden transitions from heat to cold.
The divers having returned to their boats, we continued to row till towards evening, when we landed upon a low point. As soon as the canoes were hauled up, they employed themselves in erecting their wigwams, which they dispatch with great address and quickness. I still enjoyed the protection of my two good Indian women, who made me their guest here as before; they first regaled me with sea-eggs, and then went out upon another kind of fishery by the means of dogs and nets. These dogs are a cur-like looking animal, but very sagacious, and easily trained to this business. Though in appearance an uncomfortable sort of sport, yet they engage in it readily, seem to enjoy it much, and express their eagerness by barking every time they raise their heads above the water to breathe. The net is held by two Indians, who get into the water; then the dogs, taking a large compass, dive after the fish, and drive them into the net; but it is only in particular places that the fish are taken in this manner. At the close of the evening, the women brought in two fish, which served us for supper, and then we reposed ourselves as before. Here we remained all the next day, and the morning after embarked again, and rowed till noon; then landing, we descried the canoes of the Indian men, who had been some time expected from an expedition they had been upon. This was soon to make a great alteration in the situation of my affairs, a presage of which I could read in the melancholy countenance of my young hostess. She endeavoured to express herself in very earnest terms to me, but I had not yet acquired a competent knowledge of the Indian language to understand her.
As soon as the men were landed, she and the old Indian woman went up, not without some marks of dread upon them, to an elderly Indian man, whose remarkably surly and stern countenance was well calculated to raise such sensations in his dependants. He seemed to be a cacique or chief man among them, by the airs of importance he assumed to himself, and the deference paid him by the rest. After some little conference passed between these Indians and our cacique conductor, of which, most probably, the circumstances of our history and the occasion of our coming here might be the chief subject, for they fixed their eyes constantly upon us, they applied themselves to building their wigwams.
I now understood that the two Indian women with whom I had sojourned were wives to this chieftain, though one was young enough to be his daughter; and as far as I could learn, did really stand in the different relations to him both of daughter and wife. It was easy to be perceived that all did not go well between them at this time, either that he was not satisfied with the answers that they returned him to his questions, or that he suspected some misconduct on their side; for presently after breaking out into savage fury, he took the young one up in his arms, and threw her with violence against the stones; but his brutal resentment did not stop here, he beat her afterwards in a cruel manner. I could not see this treatment of my benefactress without the highest concern for her, and rage against the author of it; especially as the natural jealousy of these people gave occasion to think that it was on my account she suffered. I could hardly suppress the first emotions of my resentment, which prompted me to return him his barbarity in his own kind; but besides that this might have drawn upon her fresh marks of his severity, it was neither politic, nor indeed in my power to have done it to any good purpose at this time.
[CHAPTER VI.]
The Cacique's Conduct changes.--Description of the Indian Mode of Bird-fowling.--Their Religion.--Mr Elliot, our Surgeon, dies.--Transactions on our Journey.--Miserable Situation to which we are reduced.