Page:An account of a savage girl.djvu/18

ed in a very lively manner, so as to convince every body who heard her, that her language was no more than a collection of guttural sounds with very little articulation. Her mouth, she says, when she was caught, was much less than it is now, and almost round; and when she laughed, she did not open her mouth as we do, but made a little motion with her upper lip and a noise in her throat, by drawing her breath inwards.—She remembers some of the idioms of her language, such as, for "wounding a man," to make him red; and, instead of "killing." she used the phrase, to make him sleep long; and that the common salutation in her country, is, I see you.—She remembered also a good deal of the funeral ceremonies used in her country; and, particularly, that the dead man was set up in a kind of case, something like an arm chair, and was addrest by his nearest relation, in a speech, of which she gave the substance in French, importing, that he had eyes, yet could not see; ears, yet could not hear; legs, yet could not walk; a mouth, yet could not eat; what then was become of him? and whither was he gone? And the ceremony was concluded with what she call'd un cri de tristesse, which was a horrid shriek that she used first when she was caught, upon every occasion of surprize or distress, to

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