Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

BURIAL PLACES^CUBBA. 191 ceremony above-mentioned had been duly performed, and till the natives who had been in the boats had chosen what they pleased for their share. This tribe appears to have regular places for depositing their dead; as on a small out-lying island, a little southward of Madre de Dios, Mr. Low found a cave which had been used for such a purpose : it was strewed with human bones, and the body of a native child was found in a state of putrefaction. The bodies seemed to have been placed in shallow graves, about a foot deep, which had been dug along the sides of the cave, and covered with twigs and leaves. Slips of a peculiar plant, resembling box, had been carefully planted along the outer sides of each grave, and those near the mouth of the cave had taken root and were growing, but all those in the interior had decayed. One evening, while at sea, Mr. Low called the boy to him, and said, " Bob, look at the sun ; it is going to be drowned." The boy shook his head, saying, " No, no drown ; to-morrow morning get up again. Sun go round earth ; come again to- morrow." The natives of this tribe* suppose that all white people originally came from the moon ; they call them " cubba;" and often make use of an expression with reference to them wliich means " White men of the Moon." These Indians, in com- mon with those of the other southern tribes, are exceedingly superstitious, implicitly believing omens, signs, and dreams, as well as the ' wise men' among them, who are thought infal- lible as prophets, doctors, and magicians. Once, when Mr. Low was detained about three weeks by contrary winds and bad weather, his crew became discontented, and attributed their ill-luck to a native who was detained on board against his will. To pacify those who were, in this instance, every bit as superstitious as the aborigines themselves, a fire was made on shore, to invite the Indians to approach ; and when they came he delivered their countryman to them, explaining at the same Che