Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/68

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LIFE OF BUCKLEY.
45

The bodies are laid on their sides when they bury them, in the same manner as they mostly lie when living.

We remained by the graves the remainder of that day and the next night, and then proceeded to the borders of another large lake, which they call Yawangcontes, in the centre of an extensive plain. There we made our huts with reeds and stones, there being no wood; so bare was it indeed, that we had to go nearly three miles for fuel to cook our food with. We remained there for many months; perhaps for a year or two, for I had lost all recollection of time. I knew nothing about it in fact, except by the return of the seasons. I had almost given up all hope of ceasing my savage life, and as man accustoms himself to the most extraordinary changes of climate and circumstances, so I had become a wild inhabitant of the wilderness, almost in reality. It is very wonderful, but not less strange than true. Almost entirely naked, enduring nearly every kind of privation, sleeping on the ground month after month, year after year, and deprived of all the decencies, and comforts of life, still I lived on, only occasionally suffering from temporary indisposition. I look back now mentally to those times, and think it perfectly miraculous how it could have been.

After this very long stay, we received a message to visit another very large lake, many miles round, which they call Kongiadgillock. On one side it is very rocky, and on the other are extensive plains, lightly timbered. About four miles from the shore is