[The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont by Louis de Rougemont]@TWC D-Link bookThe Adventures of Louis de Rougemont CHAPTER X 16/33
The women were plainly told--so we gathered--that if anything happened to us, death, and nothing less, would be their portion. Now that we could no longer leave the little break-wind that sheltered us, we spent the whole of our time in prayer--mainly for death to release us from our agonies.
I was surprised to see that the women themselves, though nude, were not much affected by the intense cold that prevailed at times, but we afterwards learnt that they anointed their naked bodies with a kind of greasy clay, which formed a complete coating all over their bodies.
During the ensuing three months the tribe constantly moved their camp, and we were always taken about by our owner and treated with the most shocking brutality.
The native food, which consisted of roots, kangaroo flesh, snakes, caterpillars, and the like, was utterly loathsome to us, and for several days we absolutely refused to touch it, in the hope that we might die of starvation. "Finally, however, the blacks compelled us to swallow some mysterious- looking meat, under threats of torture from those dreadful fire-sticks. You will not be surprised to learn that, though life became an intolerable burden to us, yet, for the most part, we obeyed our captors submissively.
At the same time, I ought to tell you that now and again we disobeyed deliberately, and did our best to lash the savages into a fury, hoping that they would spear us or kill us with their clubs.
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