the hand as they showed us the water. They gave us a skull, which Moorhouse kept, for which we gave them some bread cake(121).

We went on for several miles from here without seeing anything remarkable; it would be Hindmarsh Island(122) in Lake Alexandrina. But when we returned, we noticed a dead man sitting upright on top of one of the huts with his legs crossed and his arms outstretched, with a rope tied around both hands and his neck to a nearby tree for balance. He was already completely dry, or where something was still missing, so the fire that burned under him in the hut was likely to soon completely dry him out.

His whole body was painted with red ( 097 ) ocher, but his chest and belly were spotted with white paint; his beard was burnt down to the mustache and a bone about a foot long was stuck in the bridge of his nose. So he sat there, not unlike an idol or an Egyptian mummy; However, the natives probably only intend this custom to preserve the memory of the departed for a longer period of time, because when they saw that we noticed this strange figure and did not draw anyone's attention, they said in a mobile tone, "sit down, sit down."

When we got home in the evening we met Captain Pullen, a young, well-behaved but, it seemed to me, somewhat wild man, with whom we once again found hospitable accommodation for the night.

August 1st, 1839.
This day began and ended with rain, and it was all the more inconvenient because we had to make most of the way back through tall grass, shrub and bushes, guided only by the trail of three horses that had preceded us. If we hadn't had the native boy with us, who could track the horses over grass and stones and everywhere, we might have wandered around for several days in the extremely desolate mountains, since neither sun nor mountains could be seen because of the fog and rain. It was our intention ( 098 ) not to stop for the night until we came to a place where there was water and wood for us, and grass for the horse that one of us had; But when night suddenly fell, we came to a swamp, and we were forced to make do with rainwater and a little wood, from which leaves and twigs had been burned off, and the horse also had little or no grass. Drenched even without the protection of a few deciduous trees, exposed to the cold wind and rain, we were very cold throughout the long night. Meanwhile, after we had managed to light a large fire with the help of paper and an old rope that one of us luckily had in his pocket, we were doing better than expected, and the rain had let up a little. The ground was of course so wet that there was little thought of lying down, so we chatted with a cigar or a pipe of tobacco as long as we could, took turns lying down on my blanket and set out at 4 o'clock to make tea and ash cakes(123), so that we were on the march again at 6 o'clock.