Page:An account of a savage girl.djvu/14

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viii
PREFACE

not swim so well as she, and therefore she was obliged to assist her, and she kept herself above water, by taking hold of Le Blanc's foot; and, in this way, they both got on shore.—They then traversed a great tract of country, commonly travelling all night, and sleeping in the day-time on the tops of trees: And they subsisted upon roots which she dug out of the ground with her fingers, and particularly with her thumb, which by that, and by the use she made of it in climbing and leaping from tree to tree, was much broader, and every way larger than the thumbs of other people.—They also catch'd as much game as they could, which they eat raw with the warm blood in it, in the same manner as a hawk or wild beast does; and she remembers particularly, that they kill'd a fox, of which they only suck'd the blood, finding the flesh very disagreeable. She remembers also that they catch'd a hind.—She says farther, that besides the being able to subsist herself in the manner above mentioned, she had learn'd the use of several roots and herbs, which were good for the stomach and head, and could cure wounds.—She had also learnt to imitate the notes of birds, which was the only music known in her country.

The change of life which she underwent, after she was taken and tamed, agreed very ill with her. For besides what she suffered by being re-

strained