The Human Race Part 36

_Araucanians._--These tribes spread themselves over the western slopes of the Andes, from 30 degrees south lat.i.tude to the extremity of Tierra del Fuego, and also occupy the upper valleys and plains situate to the east of the Cordilleras.

The Araucanians const.i.tute two nations, namely, the people who properly bear that name, indomitable warriors, whose heroism is celebrated in the history of the Spanish conquest of Peru: and the _Pecherays_, who inhabit the most southern link of the American mountain chain.

According to A. d'Orbigny, both these races present a great similitude as regards their physical characteristics, which consist of a head that is large in proportion to the body, a round face, prominent cheekbones, a broad mouth, thick lips, a short, flat nose, wide nostrils, a narrow retiring forehead, horizontal eyes, and a thin beard.

Fig. 186 is a representation, after Pritchard, of one of those Araucanian Indians who may be considered as forming the least barbarous of the independent native tribes of South America.

These people do not, in fact, lead the nomadic existence of Indians.

Being protected by thick forests from the attacks and invasions of the Americans, they build what are real houses with wood and iron, and their customs denote a rudimentary civilization.

A Perigueux attorney has rendered the Araucanian nation celebrated in France. He had succeeded in getting himself chosen as its king, and when chased away by the Peruvians came to relate his Odyssey in Europe, returning afterwards to reconquer his unstable throne. Orelie, the First of the name, has according to rumour recovered at present his lofty position among the Indians of Araucania. We wish him a tranquil reign.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 186.--ARAUCANIAN.]

The _Pecherays_ inhabit the coast of Tierra del Fuego and both sh.o.r.es of the Straits of Magellan. The life they lead and the ice covering all the interior of the hilly country they occupy, force them to remain exclusively on the borders of the sea.

Their colour is olive or tawny; they are well built but of clumsy figure, and their legs bowed, from continually sitting cross-legged, give them an unsteady gait. Their pleasant natural smile gives indication of an obliging disposition.

Being essentially nomadic, they do not form themselves into communities, but move about in small numbers, by groups of two or three families, living by hunting and fis.h.i.+ng, and changing their resting-place as soon as they have exhausted the animals and sh.e.l.l-fish of the neighbourhood.

Dwelling in a region which is split up into a mult.i.tude of islands, they have become navigators, and continually traverse every sh.o.r.e of Tierra del Fuego as well as of the countries situated to the east of the strait. They build large boats, twelve to fifteen feet long and three feet broad, from the bark of trees, with no other implements than sh.e.l.ls or hatchets made of flint.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 187.--PECHERAY HUTS.]

Their huts (fig. 187) are covered over with earth or sealskins and some fine morning the whole family will abandon them and take to their canoes with their numerous dogs. The women ply their oars, while the men hold themselves in readiness to pierce any fish they perceive, with a dart pointed by a sharpened stone. When in this way they arrive at another island, the women, having placed their little vessel in safety, start in search of sh.e.l.l-fish and the men go hunting with the sling or the bow.

A short stay is followed by a fresh departure.

These poor people are thus incessantly exposed to the dangers of the sea and the inclemency of the seasons, and yet they are, it may be said, without clothing. The men's shoulders are barely covered with a sc.r.a.p of sealskin, whilst the whole apparel of the women consists in a little ap.r.o.n of the same material.

Notwithstanding this rude existence, the Pecherays display some coquetry. They load their necks, arms, and legs with gewgaws and sh.e.l.ls, and paint their bodies, and oftener their faces, with different designs in red, white, and black. The men occasionally ornament their heads with bunches of feathers. All wear a kind of boot made of sealskin.

Like all other tribes who subsist by hunting, the Pecherays have among themselves frequent quarrels, and even petty wars, that last only a short time but are continually renewed.

They share their food with their faithful companions, the dogs; it consists of cooked or raw sh.e.l.l-fish, birds, fish, and seals, and they eat the fat of the latter raw. They do not, like the inhabitants of the North Pole, pa.s.s the most rigorous period of the winter underground, but pursue their labours in the open air, protecting themselves as best they can against the cold which prevails on these sh.o.r.es, notwithstanding the deceitful name of Tierra del Fuego. This "Land of Fire," by reason of its proximity to the South Pole, is, during the greater part of the year, a region of ice.

The women are subjected to the roughest labours. They row, fish, build the cabins, and plunge into the sea, even during the most intense cold, in their search for the sh.e.l.l-fish attached to the rocks.

The language of the Pecherays resembles that of the Patagonians and the Puelches in sound, and that of the Araucanians in form. Their weapons and their religion, as well as the paintings on their faces, are also those of these three neighbouring nations.

PAMPEAN FAMILY.

The rather numerous tribes of South America who compose this family are frequently of tall stature, with arched and prominent foreheads overhanging horizontal eyes which are sometimes contracted at the outer angle. They inhabit the immense plains or _Pampas_, situated at the foot of the eastern slope of the Andes. They rear great numbers of horses, and consequently the men, like the tribes who roam over the steppes of Asia, are nearly always mounted.

The peoples comprised in this family are: the _Patagonians_, properly so called; the _Puelches_, or the tribes of the Pampas to the south of the La Plata river; the _Charruas_, in the vicinity of Uruguay; the _Tobas_, _Lenguas_, and _Machicuys_, who occupy the greater part of Chaco; the _Moxos_, the _Chiquitos_, and the _Mataguayos_; and finally the famous _Abipones_; the centaurs of the New World. We can only speak of some of these groups.

_Patagonians._--Under this name we include, besides the Patagonians proper, several other nomadic races resembling them, who are found, some to the north, and others to the south, of the La Plata. The latter wander over the pampas which stretch from that river as far as the Straits of Magellan; while the northern tribes, who bear a physical resemblance to the genuine Patagonians, inhabit that portion of the country comprised between the Paraguay river and the last spurs of the Cordilleras, and which stretches northward as far as the twentieth degree of lat.i.tude, including the inland plains of the province of Chaco.

The Patagonians are the nomads of the New World. They furnish the hors.e.m.e.n who scour its vast arid tracts, living under tents of skins, or who hide in its forests, in huts covered with bark and thatch. Haughty and unconquered warriors, they despise agriculture and the arts of civilization, and have always resisted the Spanish arms.

These savages have darker skins than most of those in South America.

Their complexion is an olive-brown; and among the men composing them we find the tallest stature as well as the most athletic and robust frames.

The tribes dwelling furthest south are the tallest, and the height of the others diminishes as the Chaco region is approached.

As has been stated in the introduction to this work, the stature of this people has been heretofore greatly exaggerated. M. Alcide d'Orbigny, who resided for seven months among many distinct divisions of the Patagonians, measured several individuals in each. He a.s.sures us that the tallest of all was only five feet eleven inches in height, and that the average is not above five feet four.

M. Victor de Rochas, in the account he has given of his voyage to Magellan's Straits, has proved in a similar manner that the stature of the Patagonians is by no means extraordinary. He found them possessed of a brown complexion; coa.r.s.e straight black hair, little beard; serious countenances--those of the men being manly and haughty, and the women's mild and good--and regular but coa.r.s.e features. The hands and feet of the females were small.

Broad, robust bodies, stout limbs, and vigorous const.i.tutions characterise all the tribes in question, the women as well as the men.

The Patagonians proper have large heads and wide flat faces with prominent cheek-bones.

Among the nations of Chaco, which we shall speak of further on, the eyes are small, horizontal, and sometimes slightly contracted at the outer corner; the nose is short, flat and broad, with open nostrils; the mouth big, the chin short, and the lips thick and prominent; they have arched eyebrows, little beard, long straight black hair, and gloomy countenances, frequently of ferocious aspect.

Though the languages of these races are essentially distinct, they have a certain a.n.a.logy between themselves; all are harsh, guttural, and difficult of p.r.o.nunciation.

The details which follow are derived from the narrative of a traveller, M. Guinard, who spent three years in captivity among the Patagonians.

Fate threw him into the hands of the tribe of the Poyuches, who wander along the southern bank of the Rio Negro, from the neighbourhood of Pacheco Island.

Whether these nomadic Indians live in the vicinity of the Spanish Americans or in the solitudes of Patagonia, beneath the outlying woody spurs of the Cordilleras, or on the bare, wild soil of the Pampas, they lead identically the same life. Their occupations are the chase, tending their domestic animals, horsemans.h.i.+p, and the use of the lance, the sling, and the la.s.so.

Their dwellings consist of hide tents, carried by these savages from place to place in their migrations. Their costume is composed of a piece of some sort of stuff with a hole in the middle to pa.s.s the head through, and their waist is girt by another fragment of smaller size. A cloth rag is tied round their head, separating the hair in front, and allowing it to fall in long waves over the shoulders. They carefully pluck the hair from every part of their bodies, without even sparing the eyebrows. Their faces are painted with volcanic earths which the Araucanians bring them, the colours varying according to taste, but red, blue, black, and white have the preference. The women wear a frock with holes for their heads, arms, and legs; they pull out their hair and eyebrows like the men, and paint their faces, the strange and hard expression of which is enhanced by ornaments of coa.r.s.e beads. Bracelets and square ear-rings complete their toilette. They can throw the lance and the la.s.so with as much ease as the men, and ride on horseback like them. M. Guinard learned how to manage the horses and use the weapons of this people, for they made him join in their nandu and _guanaco_ hunts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 188.--PATAGONIAN.]

The chief occupation of these Indians is, in fact, the chase, and they devote themselves to it all through the year. The _Chen-elches_, one of the Patagonian tribes, who have no horses, pursue their game on foot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 189.--A PATAGONIAN HORSE SACRIFICE.]

On their return from hunting the Patagonians abandon themselves to gambling and debauchery. They cheat at play and become intoxicated to madness, when they fight among themselves with fury. Two religious festivals are observed by them during the year, on which occasions they dance and indulge in fantastic cavalcades.

A custom of piercing their children's ears exists among these people, and the ceremony which then takes place is a.n.a.logous to that of baptism.

The child is laid on a horse, which has been thrown down by the chief of the family or tribe, and a hole is solemnly bored through the little lobe of his ear.

Let us add that the existence of a new-born infant is submitted to the consideration of the father and mother, who decide upon its life or death. Should they think fit to get rid of it, it is smothered, and its body carried a short distance, and then abandoned to wild dogs and birds of prey. If the poor little one is judged worthy to live, its mother nurses it until it is three years old, and at four years of age its ears are solemnly pierced, as described above.

The Patagonians in their religious ceremonials, sacrifice to the Deity a young horse and an ox given by the richest among them. When these animals have been thrown on the ground, with their heads turned towards the east, a man rips open the victim (fig. 189), tears out the heart and sticks it, still palpitating, on the end of a spear. The eager and curious crowd, with eyes fixed on the blood flowing from the gash, draw auguries, which are almost always to their own advantage, and then retire to their abodes, under the belief that G.o.d will favour their undertakings.

Marriage among these nations is a traffic, a barter of various articles and animals for a wife. The woman, moreover, is burdened with work, whilst the man takes his ease, whenever he is not hunting or engaged in minding the cattle.

The Patagonian who dies in his own home is buried with pomp. His body, covered with his handsomest ornaments, and with his weapons laid beside it, is stretched on a winding-sheet of skins. They then wrap it in these skins and tie it on the back of his favourite horse, whose left leg they break. All the women of the tribe join the wives of the deceased and utter piercing shrieks. The men, having painted their hands and faces black, escort the body as far as the place of burial, where horses and sheep are sacrificed to serve as food for the dead during his journey into the next world.

_Tobas_, _Lenguas_, and _Machicuys_.--These three tribes, which must, as we have said, be included in the Pampean family, are termed collectively the Indians of the Grand Chaco, or Great Desert. It will not be uninteresting, in order to give an example of the customs of the wild South American races, to quote here some pages in which an account of his visit to the Grand Chaco nations is related by Dr. Demersay in his travels in Paraguay.