Page:Account of a most surprising savage girl.pdf/21

21 both got on shore. They then traversed a great tract of country, commonly travelling all night, and sleeping in the daytime on the tops of trees. They subsisted upon the roots which she dug out of the ground with her fingers, and particularly her thumb, which by that, and by the use she made of it in climbing, and leaping from one tree to another, was much larger than the thumbs of other people. They also catched as much game as they could, which they eat raw with the warm blood in it, in the same manner as a hawk or wild beast does. And she remembers particularly, that they killed a fox, of which they only sucked the blood, finding the flesh very disagreeable.

She had, when she was caught at Songi, the bludgeon above-mentioned, which she wore in a pouch by her side; and, besides, she had a longer stick, with three pieces of iron at the end of it, one in the middle sharp and pointed, and the other two upon the sides hooked; and the use made of it, was to stab any wild beast that attacked her, with the sharp point; and with the hooks she assisted herself in climbing trees, by catching hold of the branches; and she says it was particularly useful to her, in defending her against the bears,