of course, were constantly moving their camp from place to
place, leaving us alone for weeks at a time; but we kept pretty
stationary, and were visited by other friendly tribes, whom we
entertained (in accordance with my consistent policy) with songs, plays,
recitations, and acrobatic performances.

In these latter Bruno took a great part, and nothing delighted the blacks
more than to see him put his nose on the ground and go head over heels
time after time with great gravity and persistency. But the effect of
Bruno's many tricks faded into the veriest insignificance beside that
produced by his bark. You must understand that the native dogs do not
bark at all, but simply give vent to a melancholy howl, not unlike that
of the hyena, I believe. Bruno's bark, be it said, has even turned the
tide of battle, for he was always in the wars in the most literal sense
of the phrase. These things, combined with his great abilities as a
hunter, often prompted the blacks to put in a demand that Bruno should be
made over to them altogether. Now, this request was both awkward and
inconvenient to answer; but I got out of it by telling them--since they
believed in a curious kind of metempsychosis--that Bruno was _my
brother_, whose soul and being he possessed! His bark, I pretended, was
a perfectly intelligible language, and this they believed the more
readily when they saw me speak to the dog and ask him to do various
things, such as fetching and carrying; tumbling, walking on his
hind-legs, &c. &c. But even this argument did not suffice to overcome
the covetousness of some tribes, and I was then obliged to assure them
confidentially that he was a relative of the Sun, and therefore if I
parted with him he would bring all manner of most dreadful curses down
upon his new owner or owners. Whenever we went rambling I had to keep
Bruno as near me as possible, because we sometimes came across natives
whose first impulse, not knowing that he was a dog, was to spear him.
Without doubt the many cross-breeds between Bruno and the native dogs
will yet be found by Australian explorers.

Our hut was about three-quarters of a mile away from the sea, and in the
morning the very first thing the girls and I did was to go down to the
beach arm-in-arm and have a delicious swim.

They very soon became expert swimmers, by the way, under my tuition.
Frequently I would go out spearing and netting fish, my principal
captures being mullet. We nearl