Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/58

 32 name which sounds to us appropriate, "yoke," yokefellow. I have sketched for you Too-legat Wanty and his "yoke," who was in rather an interesting state when we saw her, which she intimated to us with very little reserve.

At her back she carries the bag containing some roots which they eat after roasting and pounding. At King George's Sound, it is said that they never molest white people, but they have deadly feuds with each other, tribe against tribe; if one person be killed, or even dies a natural death, it is an ordinance of their religion to sacrifice a victim from another tribe, just to preserve the balance of power.

One of our natives slept with his head on my knee in the boat, but not till he had asked permission, which I gave him; first taking the precaution of spreading paper on my trowsers to save them from the grease and red earth with which his hair was dressed.

I next went up the Canning River, my object being to obtain a grant without loss of time, and to take my people to it, but I find it difficult to get one. The only land available for present purposes is on and near the banks of the rivers: all this is now allotted on both sides of each river, almost to their source; but an offer is frequently made of giving one half to a new settler, on condition of his performing the location duties sufficient to secure the whole. I have an offer of