Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/92

Rh man of whom he was jealous. He pierced him to the ground, right through his body. Hearing the noise occasioned by this assault, I gave the alarm, but he was gone, taking with him the woman. The poor fellow's brother who was wounded, and myself, endeavoured to draw the spear, but could not, even by twisting it round, it being jagged; at length a woman succeeded, but although everything was done to save him, he died in a very few hours. The next day he was buried, or rather suspended on the branches of a tree as before described, his mother making horrible lamentations, and burning her body all over with fire-sticks. The next day the men set off to find the murderer, but not succeeding, they returned a little before dark.

A short time after this affair we shifted our quarters, and, when on a hunting excursion, accidentally fell in with the tribe to which he belonged, and a very desperate fight ensued. As is the case with them in such matters, when the parents cannot be punished for any wrong done, they inflict it upon the offspring. So now, the savages having got hold of a child of about four years of age, which this man had had by the young woman before referred to, they immediately knocked it on the head, and having destroyed it, they killed the murderer's brother, also spearing his mother through the thigh, and wounding at the same time several others; so that vengeance was heaped upon him and his tribe in a most dreadful manner. However, the man himself having escaped, he, with others, went in the night to the hut of the savage who had killed his brother, and