Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/75

] large semicircular risings, one above the other: whether from coquetry, or not, would be difficult to determine.

One of the savages had several marks of very recent burns on the head. Perhaps they employ the actual cautery in many diseases, which is an established practice among various other people, and particularly among most of the Indians.

About noon we saw them prepare their repast. Hitherto we had but a faint idea of the pains the women take to procure the food requisite for the subsistence of their families. They took each a basket, and were followed by their daughters, who did the same. Getting on the rocks, that projected into the sea, they plunged from them to the bottom in search of shell-fish. When they had been down some time, we became very uneasy on their account; for where they had dived were sea-weeds of great length, among which we observed the fucus pyriferus, and we feared that they might have been entangled in these, so as to be unable to regain the surface. At length, however, they appeared, and convinced us that they were capable of remaining under water twice as long as our ablest divers. An instant was sufficient for them to take breath, and then they dived again. This they did repeatedly, till their baskets were nearly full. Most of them were provided