ave
observed before, many of the things that we had given them, we found
left negligently about in the woods, like the playthings of children,
which please only while they are new. Upon their bodies we saw no marks
of disease or sores, but large scars in irregular lines, which appeared
to be the remains of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves
with some blunt instrument, and which we understood by signs to have
been memorials of grief for the dead.[92]

[Footnote 91: Other people, we know, have a fancy for such ornaments.
According to Captain Carver's account of some of the North American
Indians, "it is a common custom among them to bore their noses, and wear
in them pendants of different sorts." And more instances might be
mentioned. But we shall have occasion hereafter to speak of some
remarkable modes in which the love of distinction and ornament manifests
itself The very same principle leads human nature to embellish itself
from the "crown of the head to the sole of the foot." One's own dear
self is so lovely as to become every sort of ornament that ingenuity can
contrive!--E.]

[Footnote 92: It might be worth one's while to enquire as to the
prevalency of this practice amongst different people, and whether or not
it is in general connected with any peculiarities of religious belief.
That it was in use in early times, is certain, for we find a prohibition
against it in the Mosaic code, Deut. xiv. 1. and an allusion to it in
Jerem. xvi. 6. Mr Harmer, who has some observations on the subject,
seems to be of opinion that the expression used in Deuteronomy, _the
dead_, means _idols_, and that the practice accordingly was rather of a
religious nature. But the language of the prophet in the verse alluded
to, does not fall in with such a notion. Cicero speaks contemptuously of
such modes of mourning for the dead, calling them _varie et detestabilia
genera lugendi_. Tusc. Quaest. 3.--E.]

They appeared to have no fixed habitations, for we saw nothing like a
town or village in the whole country. Their houses, if houses they may
be called, seem to be formed with less art and industry than any we had
seen, except the wretched hovels at Terra del Fuego, and in some
respects they are inferior even to them. At Botany Bay, where they were
best, they were just high enough for a man to sit upright in; but not
large enough for him to extend himself in his whole length in any
direction: They are built with pliable rods a