Page:The Swiss Family Robinson - 1851.djvu/342

Rh some cocoa-nuts containing milk, and an acid fruit, full of juice, which we have in our own island—Ernest calls it the carambolier; we quenched our thirst with this, as well as with the plant, which we also have, and which contains water in the stem. The country is flat and open, and its beautiful trees stand at such a distance from each other, that no one could hide among them. But if we found no dwelling, we often discovered traces of the savages,—extinguished fires, remains of kangaroos and of fish, cocoa-nut shells, and even entire nuts, which we secured for ourselves; we remarked, also, footmarks on the sand. We both wished anxiously to meet with a savage, that we might endeavour to make him comprehend, by signs, whom we were in search of, hoping that natural affection might have some influence even with these untaught creatures. I was only fearful that my dress and the colour of my skin might terrify them. In the mean time, Jack, with his usual rashness had climbed to the summit of one of the tallest trees, and suddenly cried out, 'Fritz, prepare your signs, the savages are landing. Oh what black ugly creatures they are and nearly naked! you ought todress yourself like them, to make friends with them. You can stain your skin with these,' throwing me down branches of a sort of fruit of a dark purple colour, large as a plum, with a skin like the mulberry. 'I have been tasting them, they are very nauseous, and they have stained my fingers black; rub yourself well with the juice of this fruit, you will be a perfect savage,'

"I agreed immediately. He descended from the tree while I undressed, and with his assistance I