Burchell
states that some of the tribes in Southern Africa dig up roots by
the aid of a stick pointed at one end, the force and weight of
which are increased by a round stone with a hole in it, into which
the other end is firmly wedged. (12/3. Burchell's "Travels" volume
2 page 45.) It appears probable that the Indians of Chile formerly
used some such rude agricultural instrument.
One day, a German collector in natural history, of the name of
Renous, called, and nearly at the same time an old Spanish lawyer.
I was amused at being told the conversation which took place
between them. Renous speaks Spanish so well that the old lawyer
mistook him for a Chilian. Renous alluding to me, asked him what he
thought of the King of England sending out a collector to their
country, to pick up lizards and beetles, and to break stones? The
old gentleman thought seriously for some time, and then said, "It
is not well,--hay un gato encerrado aqui (there is a cat shut up
here). No man is so rich as to send out people to pick up such
rubbish. I do not like it: if one of us were to go and do such
things in England, do not you think the King of England would very
soon send us out of his country?" And this old gentleman, from his
profession, belongs to the better informed and more intelligent
classes! Renous himself, two or three years before, left in a house
at San Fernando some caterpillars, under charge of a girl to feed,
that they might turn into butterflies.
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