The sight of this cheered us up; and when on tasting the water we found it excellent, and saw adhering to the banks a species of freshwater mussel (Unio) called by the natives Maraylya, our joy was complete.
SUPERSTITIOUS FEELINGS OF KAIBER REGARDING MUSSELS.
I proceeded therefore to collect wood for my fire and ordered Kaiber to make haste and gather some of these mussels, an order which, considering the hungry state he was in, I imagined he would gladly have obeyed; but to my astonishment he refused positively to touch one of them, and evidently regarded them with a superstitious dread and abhorrence.

My arguments to induce him to move were all thrown away; he constantly affirmed that if he touched these shellfish through their agency the Boyl-yas* would acquire some mysterious influence over him, which would end in his death.

He could not state a recent instance of any ill effects having happened from handling or catching the mussel; but when I taunted him with this he very shrewdly replied that his inability to do so only arose from the fact of nobody being "wooden-headed enough" to meddle with them, and that he intended to have nothing whatever to do with them.

This much he assured me was certain: that a very very long time ago some natives had eaten them, and that bad spirits had immediately killed them for so doing.
(*Footnote.

The Boyl-ya is the native sorcerer.) Kaiber was a great deal too sensible a fellow to be allowed to remain a prey to so ridiculous a superstition as this was; I therefore ordered him instantly to go and bring some of these mussels to me; that I intended to eat them, but that he could in this respect please himself.