Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/77

] claws among the men and children, reserving the body for themselves, which they sometimes ate before they returned into the water.

It gave us great pain to see these poor women condemned to such severe toil; while, at the same time, they ran the hazard of being devoured by sharks, or entangled among the weeds that rise from the bottom of the sea. We often intreated their husbands to take a share in their labour at least, but always in vain. They remained constantly near the fire, feasting on the best bits, and eating broiled fucus, or fern-roots. Occasionally they took the trouble to break boughs of trees into short pieces, to feed the fire, taking care to choose the driest. From their manner of breaking them, we found that their skulls must be very hard; for, taking hold of the sticks at each end with the hand, they bent them over their heads, as we do at the knee, till they broke. Their heads being constantly bare, and often exposed to all weathers, in this high latitude, acquire a capacity of resisting such efforts: besides, their hair forms a cushion, which diminishes the pressure, and renders it much less painful on the summit of the head, than on any other part of the body. Few of the women, however, could have done as much; for some had their hair cut pretty short, and wore a string several times round the head, others had only