"That is their repute. They live mostly on shellfish. They do not
congregate in communities. A few families keep together, and move
constantly from place to place. They have a quaint belief that if they
remain on a camping-ground more than a night or two the devil will
stick his head out of the ground and bite them. Obviously, the real
devil that plagues them is the continuous wandering demanded by their
search for food."
Christobal would have aired such a scrap of interesting knowledge at
the foot of the scaffold, and expected the executioner to listen
attentively.
"They are called the Alaculof. They use bows and arrows, with heads
chipped out of stone or bottle-glass," put in Tollemache.
"Oh, you have been in these parts before?" cried Courtenay, regarding
his compatriot with some interest, while the Spaniard surveyed his
rival doubtfully.
"Yes--was on the _Emu_--wrecked in Cockburn Channel."
Now, the story of the _Emu_ is one of those fierce tragedies which the
sea first puts on the stage of life with dire skill, and then proceeds
to destroy the slightest vestige of their brief existence.
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