Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/53

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Feb.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
39

these risings were produced, had not destroyed the cellular membrane, however, for they were of the same colour as the rest of the skin.

The custom of extracting two of the front teeth of the upper jaw, which, from the accounts of some voyagers, had been supposed general among the inhabitants of this country, certainly has not been introduced into this tribe; for we did not see one among them, in whom a single tooth of the upper jaw was wanting; and indeed they had all very good teeth.

One of the sailors, that accompanied us, thought he could not regale them better than with a glass of brandy: but, accustomed to drink nothing but water, they quickly spit it out, and it seemed to have given them a very disagreeable sensation.

These savages, going completely naked, are liable to wound themselves, particularly in the lower extremities, when they pass through the woods. We observed one, who walked with difculty, and one of whose feet was wrapped up in a piece of skin.

I had not perceived the young girls for some time, and imagined that they had all retired into the woods; but happening to look behind me, I saw, with surprise, seven who had perched themselves on a stout limb of a tree, more than three

yards