Charles Marie de La Condamine

“ When any company visited M. d'Epinoy at Songi, he used to send for the girl, who soon became more tame, and began to discover much good humour, and a softness and humanity of disposition, which the savage life she had been obliged to follow for self-preservation, had not been able to efface. ”

“ The largest rivers did not stop their journey by day or night, for they always crossed them without any dread. Sometimes they entered for the sake of drinking, which they performed by dipping in their chin up to the mouth, and sucking the water like horses. But they most frequently entered the rivers to catch the fish they saw at the bottom, which they brought on shore, to open, skin, and eat them. ”

“ That they are taught very early to climb trees; and a child of a year old there, is able to climb a tree: That the people live in little huts above the water, like beavers, and subsist chiefly by fishing. She herself was so much used to water, that when she came to France she could not live without it, and was in use to plunge into it over head and ears, and to continue in it, swimming about and diving like an otter, or any other amphibious animal. ”

“ And to this day, her thumbs retain somewhat of that largeness. By her account, these large strong thumbs were very useful to her during her wild life in the woods; for, when she had a mind to pass from one tree to another, if the branches of the two trees were but at a small distance, and though of no greater thickness than her finger, she would place her thumbs on a branch of the tree in which she happened to be, and by their means spring to the other, just like a squirrel. ”

“ For, here they formed a scheme of scratching a hole in the ship with their nails, by which they might make their escape into their favourite element, the water. The crew, however, luckily discovered their operations, in time to prevent them, and escape shipwreck. ”