e asked her
what was the matter, she told him that her husband was going to beat her
for having broken his pipe. The gentleman went to the husband, and
entreated him to forgive his "gin" (for that is the name for a _wife_ or
_woman_). But the man declared he would not forgive her, unless a new
pipe was given to him. The gentleman could not promise one to the black
man, as there were no pipes to be had in that place. The next morning the
poor gin appeared with a broken arm, her cruel husband having beaten her
with a thick stick.

The miserable gins are not _beaten_ only; they are _half starved_; for
their husbands will give them no food, and _they_--poor things--cannot
fish or hunt, or shoot; they have nothing but the roots they dig up, and
the grubs, and lizards, and snakes they find on the ground. Their looks
show how wretchedly they fare; for while the men are often strong and
tall, the women are generally thin, and bent, and haggard.

Yet the _woman_, weak as she is, carries all the baggage, not only the
babe slung upon her back, but the bag of food, and even her husband's gun
and pipe; while the _man_ stalks along in his pride, with nothing but
his spear in his hand, or at most a light basket upon his arm; for he
considers his wife as his beast of burden. At night the woman has to
build her own shelter, for the man thinks it quite enough to build one
for himself.

Such is the hard lot of a native woman, while she _lives_; and when she
_dies_, her body is perched in a tree, as not worth the trouble of
burying.

I have already told you, that the natives have no GOD; yet they have a
DEVIL, whom they call Yakoo, or debbil-debbil. Of him they are always
afraid, for they fancy he goes about devouring children. When any one
dies, they say, "Yakoo took him." How different from those happy
Christians who can say of their dead, "God took them!"

People who know not God, but only the devil, must be very wicked. These
savages show themselves to be children of debbil-debbil by their actions.
They kill many of their babes, that they may not have the trouble of
nursing them. Old people also they kill, and laugh at the idea of making
them "tumble down." One of the most horrible things they do, is making
the skulls of their friends into drinking-cups, and they think that by
doing so, they show their AFFECTION! They allow the nearest relation to
have the skull of the dead person. They will even EAT a little piece of
the dead bo