ith travel. Telling us to
go to the fire and see how we liked the looks of the natives, we
followed his advice, and walked towards them. There were ten or twelve
of them huddled together in a circle, squatted upon their haunches, each
with a piece of raw flesh lying upon the ground, while other junks were
broiling on the coals, to be transferred from thence to the fingers of
those claiming them.

They manifested no surprise or curiosity when Fred and myself halted
within a few feet of them, and regarded their feeding operations with
considerable disgust. Their minds appeared to be too much occupied to
pay the least attention to outward objects, and as they poked their
burning food among the ashes, and licked their fingers, and grunted with
satisfaction, they certainly did not seem better than so many swine. At
least they were not half so clean.

"Well, of all the eating I ever saw, this is the worst," cried Fred,
after a few moments' contemplation.

"Even the Indians of California would be ashamed to look so dirty," I
remarked.

"Hullo," cried Smith, advancing with the sauce pan filled with water,
which he had obtained somewhere in the vicinity, although we could not
in the dark see any evidence of a stream. "Hullo," he cried; "what is
the matter? Why don't you sit down and join the gentlemen? Well, old
Bulger, how are you getting along?" addressing a native that looked
older than the others, and consequently more dirty.

The brute grunted, and paid no farther attention to the address; but
Smith was not to be bluffed that way.

"Let me have a chance at your fire," he said, holding the sauce pan
towards him; but the native gave no attention except to his burning
meat, which he turned over in the ashes with a stick, and apparently had
a great desire to eat raw.

"I know of a way to start him," muttered Smith. "Stand by and watch the
fun," he continued, addressing Fred and myself.

He canted the sauce pan a little one side, and allowed the water to run
over the rim, and strike upon the native's naked shoulder. The fellow
uttered a howl as though seared with a hot iron, and scrabbling away
from the fire, left the convict free access.

"There is nothing like water to start them," cried Smith, laughing, as
he put his dish upon the coals, while those who still kept their places
watched his motions with their little glittering eyes, as though fearful
they should also be subjected to a bath.

The native whom the con