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CHAPTER V.

DREADFUL ASSASSINATION.—NATIVE MUSIC.—ODD HABITS AND SUPERSTITIONS.—THE KALKEETH ANT.—DESCRIPTION OF TOMAHAWK.—MORE FIGHTS AND MISCHIEF.—FATAL ACCIDENT.—VENEMOUS SNAKES.—LOSS OF MY FRIENDS AND SUPPOSED RELATIONS.

"Ev'n the low hut—poor shelter—while he slept,
  Shook in the earthquake, or the storm, or rain:
Thus, sick at heart, the Exile stood and wept,
  O'er thought and care, and hope and toil, in vain."


Having told this horrible tale, let us now return to our halting place at Moodiwiri, when, after a long time another tribe joined us, and a dispute arose about surrendering a woman who had been carried away. The man who had her with him refused to give her up, so she was forcibly taken from him and brought to the hut I was in, very much to my dissatisfaction. I was greatly annoyed at it, because I thought the matter would not end there, and so it turned out; for when the native from whom she had been taken, found she was gone, he resolved on vengeance, and with this view, when we were all asleep, he came to our hut and speared the