Page:An account of a savage girl.djvu/15

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PREFACE
ix

strained from the water, as is mentioned above, the victuals prepared with fire she could not digest, by which she was reduced to very great extremity: And a physician being call'd to her, he, to mend the matter, blooded her severely, saying, that it was necessary to change her habit, and put French blood into her veins: And whether it be the effect of the change of her life, or of the prescription of this doctor, or of both, she is at present, at least was in the 1765, in a poor state of health, having lost all her extraordinary bodily faculties, and retaining nothing of the savage, but a certain wildness in her look, and a very great stomach.

She has lost almost entirely the language of her country, remembering only the tone of it, and manner of speaking, and some wild cries, with which she used to frighten the French people first after she was caught; and it was by these cries, and by signs, that she conversed with her companion the negro girl, who did not speak nor understand her language, but had a language of her own, of which Le Blanc only remembered one word, viz. Broutut, signifying any thing that was eatable.—As to her own language, she says it was all spoken from the throat, with very little use of the tongue, and none at all of the lips; and this she represent-

ed