MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES
Indian method of curing measles -- Driving out the devil
-- Magellan -- _Patagon_ -- Long boots -- Reports of
travellers -- One of the finest races in the world --
Nomadic -- Hunters -- Decreasing in numbers --
Introduction of horses -- _Bolas_ -- No history -- Keen
bargainers but not progressive -- Features -- Good teeth
-- Women -- Morality -- Young and old women -- Half-bloods
-- _Paisanos_ -- Reserved in character -- Habits --
Infants' heads bandaged -- Dance -- Wives bought -- Price
of a wife -- Marriage ceremony -- White man in _toldos_ --
Bad influence -- Connections of white men and Tehuelche
women -- Dress and adornment of women -- Work -- Lazy race
-- High wages -- Ceremonies and customs -- Religion --
Gualicho -- Fear of Cordillera -- Fat hunger -- Tehuelche
lives on horseback -- Esquimaux and Tehuelche -- Primitive
peoples and their habits -- Food -- Tobacco -- Pipes --
Language -- Tribal government -- Physical strength --
Decreasing numbers -- Men of silence and men of uproar --
Courtesy of a Tehuelche.
Snow lay in the hollows so deep that only the lean crests of the
higher bushes could thrust themselves through its surface. The wind,
which had driven the snowstorm of the morning away to the east, swept
drearily down out of an evening sky where neither sun nor sunset hues
were to be seen, nothing but a spread of cold and misty grey, growing
slowly overshadowed by the looming promise of more snow.
In the middle of the level white pampa two figures upon galloping
horses were visible. As we came nearer we saw that one was that of a
man clothed in a _chiripa_ and a _capa_ in which brown was the
predominating colour. He was mounted on a heavy-necked powerful
_cebruno_ horse, his stirrups were of silver, and his gear of raw-hide
seemed smart and good. As he rode he yelled with all his strength,
producing a series of the most horrible and piercing shrieks.
But strange as was this wild figure, his companion, victim or quarry,
was stranger and more striking still. For on an ancient _zaino_ sat
perched a little brown maiden, whose aspect was forlorn and pathetic
to the last degree. She rode absolutely naked in the teeth of the
bitter cold, her breast, face and limbs blotched and smeared with the
rash of some eruptive disease, and her heavy-lidded eyes, strained and
open, staring ahead across the leagues of empty snow-patched plain.
Presently the man redoubled his howls, and bearing down upon the
_zaino_ flogged and frightened it into yet greater speed. The whole
scene might have been mistaken for some ancient barbaric and revolting
form of punishment; whereas, in real truth, it was an anxious Indian
father trying, according to his lights, to cure his daughter of the
measles!
It appeared that the girl had taken the disease in an extremely acute
form, and Indian belief and reasoning run something on these lines:
First fact--The child was possessed by a devil of great power and
ferocity, who set up such a trouble inside her body that it came forth
through her skin in blotches and spots.
Second fact--A devil is known to dislike noise and cold. All devils
do. Hence the ride of the unlucky patient without a shred to protect
her from the strong west wind snow-fed with bitter cold, and the
almost incredible uproar made by the old gentleman upon the dark brown
horse.
If one concedes the premises, it must be admitted there was method in
his madness.
[Illustration: A NEW CURE FOR THE MEASLES]
The above account was given me by Mr. Ernest Cattle, an accurate
observer, whose knowledge of the wild districts of Patagonia is
unique.
Such is the Tehuelche Indian of Patagonia to-day, and facts tend to
show that he has in very few particulars departed from the customs,
manner of living and modes of thought which distinguished his
forefathers in the dawn of authentic Tehuelchian history. The earliest
mention of the natives of Patagonia occurs on the occasion of the
discovery of the country by Magellan in 1520. They were described as
men of huge stature, giants in fact, and the very name Patagonia is
said to be derived from the epithet "_patagon_," or "large feet,"
which the Spaniards bestowed upon them on account of the enormous
tracks their footsteps left upon the sand of the seashore. The
Tehuelches are not, as it happens, a large-footed though they are a
tall race, but, considering the curious persistency of habit, which is
one of their chief characteristics, the idea taken up by the Spanish
is easily explained. The Tehuelches wear boots of _potro_ (colt-skin)
or guanaco-skin, which project in a narrow point some inches beyond
the toes. There can be little doubt, judging by all else we know of
them, that their ancestors of Magellan's day wore the same shape of
foot-gear. The impressions left by such boots would very naturally, on
being observed by voyagers, take their place as indications of a race
of giants. In connection with this idea I may mention that several
early writers united in giving a very bad name to the Tehuelches. No
reputation could be more totally unmerited. From reading such accounts
one would be left with the conviction that the Tehuelches are
blood-thirsty and barbarous savages. This is certainly not the case
now, and I do not believe, judging from all I saw of them under
various circumstances, that such accusations could ever have been
deserved. Some travellers appear to have fallen into the error of
confounding them with other Indian races of South America, whose
characteristics and history differ absolutely from the people of whom
I am writing.
We see here how easy it is for travellers to make mistakes. More than
one writer has charged them with the habit of eating raw flesh;
whereas they cook the meat for food, but on occasion they will eat raw
fat and drink the warm blood of the ostrich, which facts, no doubt,
have given rise to the above misstatement.
Although not giants, the Tehuelches are certainly one of the finest
races in the world. Most of them average 6 ft., some attain to 6 ft. 4
in. or even more, and in all cases they are well built and well
developed. Physically, the men are splendid fellows, who look yet more
nobly formed and proportioned because of the ample folds of the skin
_capas_ and _ponchos_ in which they wrap themselves. Their way of
life tends to muscular excellence, but even taking that into
consideration the development of the arms, chest, and, in fact, the
whole body above the loins is extraordinary. But the lower limbs are
sometimes disappointing, being, in fact, the lower limbs of a race of
riders.[7]
The Tehuelche Indians of Patagonia are essentially nomads, living
chiefly upon the proceeds of their hunting, and, in a less degree,
maintaining themselves upon sale or barter connected with their
limited holding of domestic animals. Agriculture or tillage is
absolutely unknown among them. The hunting-ground is farm enough for
them, and they pitch their tents of skin where they will, or change
their quarters at the dictates of necessity or whim. They always break
camp if a death occurs among the tribe, for the spot is then
considered accursed. And they are, of course, also largely influenced
in their movements by the wanderings of the guanaco herds, which form
their principal quarry.
There are five existing camps of Indians to be found in Patagonia. I
visited two of them and a third small outlying group. Their numbers
have sadly decreased since the days of the opening 'seventies, when
George Chaworth Musters made his abode in the tribal _toldos_ and
followed with them in their wanderings. He speaks of two tribes of
Tehuelches, the northern and the southern, only distinguishable by a
slight difference of dialect, and who met and intermarried, although
they did not object to espousing opposite sides in a quarrel. Other
tribes whom he mentions did not inhabit the part of the country of
which I am writing.
The Tehuelches proper appear to have been fairly prosperous and
numerous in his day, but even then he says, speaking of them:
"Supplies of rum procured in trade at the settlements ... and disease,
small-pox especially, are rapidly diminishing their numbers." Things
have undoubtedly gone from bad to worse in this unhappy direction, and
I am inclined to think that the number of Tehuelche Indians surviving
at this period can be little over a few hundreds in number. Rum is
undoubtedly their chief foe. Drink to the uncivilised man is a danger
against which he is provided with no defence, either social or moral.
Having once tasted its fatal pleasures, he has no reason for
forbidding himself an indulgence his animal nature craves.
[Illustration: ARROWHEADS AND KNIFE, FOUND NEAR COLOHUAPI, CHUBUT.
(NOW IN COLLECTION OF MR. E. M. SPROT)]
Since the day on which the Spanish adventurers first sighted the
Patagonian coast, perhaps the one "event" in the history of the
Indians may truly be said to be the introduction of horses into their
land. Otherwise they seem to have altered little in their way of life.
Magellan says they came down to the ship clad and shod in
guanaco-skins; they are clad and shod in guanaco-skins to-day. Their
tools and knives were sharp-edged flints; I have seen the Indians skin
their quarry with precisely the same weapons.
Bows and arrows were indeed in use among the tribes when the Spaniards
visited the coast; these have now been superseded by the _boleadores_,
an innovation which in its present form came into fashion after the
Indians began to know the value of the horse. The _bolas_ is the
weapon of the Tehuelche. With it he kills his game, and with it also
he catches wild colts, and finds it useful in his simple process of
training. The _bolas_ is made up of three thongs of raw hide fastened
together at one end, the other free ends having attached to them
stones or bits of pot-iron sewn up in skin. The Indian throws his
weapon with marvellous accuracy at any animal he may be pursuing, and
the thongs coiling instantly round the legs or neck of the creature,
bring it to the ground, or, at any rate, entangle it hopelessly.
It may well be judged that this race have no history. They remain in
touch with the methods and customs according to which their
forefathers were wont to live centuries ago, and who in their turn had
derived them from still older generations. Though most of the men now
possess cheap store knives of steel, I have seen, as I said before,
many a quarry skinned with the prehistoric flint knife. They are an
intelligent people, indeed keen where bargaining is concerned, as long
as they are sober; yet they seem to be entirely lacking in that
quality which would enable them to forget the past with its
traditional usages and methods, and to follow even remotely the
sweeping onward rush that, like a tornado, carries with it the lagging
races of mankind. Although the men possess unusual strength, they do
not in the least know how to apply it. Their faces are somewhat flat,
although the features are more or less cast in the aquiline mould, and
fairly regular. The hair is coarse and lustreless, its blackness
relieved by a fillet or handkerchief of scarlet. Their teeth are
excellent, toothache being almost unknown in their tents. Although
they bathe, I have never observed among them any article that would in
any way correspond to the tooth-stick of other nomadic peoples. Their
beautiful teeth are perhaps due to their habit of chewing a gummy
substance that exudes from the incensio bush. Musters, in his book,
says they use this as a dentifrice.
[Illustration: A TEHUELCHE CACIQUE]
The women are not, according to our European ideas, beautiful, and
such comeliness as they may sometimes possess in youth blossoms and
fades quickly. They are, however, strong, and much of the camp work
falls to their share. The older women can boast of a brand of ugliness
all their own. Age to these ladies brings several vices in its
train. Most noticeable is a craving for strong waters, a weakness from
which the younger women are entirely free.
The morality of the Tehuelches is, on the whole, admirable.
Unfaithfulness in the wife is rare, and not often bitterly revenged. A
point as regards the morality of the women is to my mind rather
luminous. While the younger _chinas_ are unexceptionable in their
moral virtues, the older women cannot be so highly commended. They are
rather apt to wander from the stricter paths of decorum. When the
husband of one of these elderly houris dies, as soon as the due period
of mourning is past, the bereaved one will take up with any male in
her tribe for either a longer or a shorter period. For ugliness sheer
and unrivalled these grandmothers of the tribes stand alone. Also, as
they get on in years, these ladies often run to fat. I remember one
immense woman in the _toldos_ on the pampas between Lake Argentino and
Gallegos, who had put on flesh in a manner and to an extent almost
unbelievable.
The younger women, while the flush of girlhood is still upon them,
possess a certain comeliness which I can only describe by the
adjectives "savage" and "stolid." Yet the abundant coarse black hair
hanging round the heavily quiet faces, in which the features, though
flattened, are still slightly aquiline, the wide-open, patient eyes,
the healthful colour, and the strong, white, even teeth, which their
slow smiles disclose to you, make them, on the whole, a personable
race.
The half-bloods, as is usual, often possess real beauty, the alien
strain giving them that vivacity which the pure race seems to lack.
Some of the pictures show an unsightly slit of the lip in the case of
a few _paisanos_.[8] This hare-lip is by no means universal, but is an
hereditary peculiarity that appears in many of the members of one
special household. The arrival of a stranger in the camp makes the
women retire shyly within themselves, and it is only by chance--as it
is in the case of wild animals--that the new-comer ever sees the
unaffected and natural character shine out. When in contact with
whites the Tehuelche man also becomes reserved, the whole expression
of his countenance changes, and he is very suspicious of being laughed
at, a point on which he is very susceptible, and which he deeply
resents.
I cannot but think that the constant accusations of uncleanliness that
have been brought against the Tehuelche Indians are due to the single
fact that their dogs are allowed to live in the _toldos_. The result
in a country where scab is common may be left to the imagination. But,
apart from the crawling things which inhabit his _toldos_, the Indian
is fairly cleanly, bathing each day and swimming in the lakes and
lagoons. The women make excellent mothers, and the father is
inordinately proud of his offspring, especially of his sons. Of how
many races can so many good things be truthfully said?
They have a singular custom of bandaging the heads of infants in such
a manner as to produce a flattening of the back of the skull. It might
be worth the while of physiologists to go deeper into the matter, with
a view to discovering how far this alteration in the brain-space
determines the character of the individual operated upon. Interesting
results might thus be obtained and some vexed problems solved.
A certain stage in the life of each girl is celebrated by a festivity
in the camp. An ornamented _toldo_ is put up temporarily for the
girl's occupation, and the young men of the tribe march round it
singing while the women howl, probably with a view to exorcising any
evil spirit who may be lingering about the camp.[9] The ceremony is
followed by a feast, and the evening winds up with a dance. The men
alone take part in this, and it consists in circling round the fire,
pacing sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly. A few dance at a time,
accompanying their movements with a constant bowing or nodding of the
head, which is adorned with tufts of ostrich feathers. When one party
is tired out another takes its place.
Wives, of course, are bought and sold, but when a lady is purchased by
a suitor whom she happens to dislike, there is trouble for the
bridegroom, and conjugal obedience is only enforced after struggles,
of which the not infrequent result is that the mark of the lady's
teeth remains permanently upon her lord.
The price of a wife varies, as must be expected in the natural course
of things. Strangely enough, a girl's value often depends upon the
number of her brethren, who must receive two horses apiece. To buy a
bride with means or rather animals of her own, an heiress in fact, who
comes of well-to-do people, as much as a hundred mares have been
given--or shall I say paid.[10]
When desirous of carrying on matrimonial negotiations the would-be
bridegroom must always employ a go-between. To omit this ceremonial
method of approach would be an outrage on etiquette. I conclude,
though I do not know it for a fact as regards Patagonia, that the
go-between in that country gets his pickings from both sides as his
congener does elsewhere.
The marriage ceremony is delightfully simple. After the preliminary
bargaining has been successfully brought to a close, the happy
bridegroom mounts his horse and rides to the _toldo_ of his intended
and hands over his appointed gifts, receiving those of the parents in
return. He then carries back his bride amid the cheers and cries of
his friends, and in the evening there is a feast. Musters remarks that
on these occasions the dogs are not permitted to touch the meat or
offal of the animals killed, as it is considered unlucky if they do
so.
The gifts which are exchanged between the parties form in a more or
less degree a marriage settlement, for in case of divorce her parents'
gifts accrue to the wife. Polygamy is allowed but not much practised
among the tribes.
Few phenomena are to my mind more unaccountable than the action of the
white man who "goes fantee."
"Went fantee, joined the people of the land,
Turned three parts Mussulman and one Hindoo,
And lived among the Gauri villages,
Who gave him shelter and a wife or twain."
This singular mental or moral warp which results in a man "going
fantee" is by no means uncommon in Patagonia. Of course, as may be
imagined, a certain proportion of such men fall to this condition at
the end of the career variegated. Others prefer ruling in Cathay to
serving in any other community more dignified; others again take
daughters of the land to wife because their trade lies with the
Indians.
There is, however, one very strong objection to this latter course of
marrying, Tehuelche fashion, a _china_ of the _toldos_, and that is
that all the relatives of the lady in question are apt to quarter
themselves upon the bridegroom. Occasionally the white man objects,
but I imagine that the cases of those who object successfully are
rare. But there is one _estanciero_ in Patagonia who is the father of
two buxom daughters by a Tehuelche wife. These girls are now grown up,
and their tribe was encamped during the winter of 1900 not two hours'
ride from the dwelling-place of their father. Yet I am assured the
father never aided the tribe or his own offspring in any way, although
that winter was so severe that starvation visited the _toldos_ of the
tribe. A man of this mettle is, however, not frequently to be heard
of, and cases of a quite laudable affection having existed between a
white man and a _china_ are on record.
But, at the same time, it must be repeated that the influence of the
white who goes to live among the Indians as one of themselves, almost
without exception, makes for evil. I have already spoken of the
offspring of the mixed unions. The Tehuelche blood gives to the faces
of the half-breed women an expression of sad patience, while the
Spanish connection adds certainly to their gift of beauty.
[Illustration: TEHUELCHE MATRON, SHOWING HARE-LIP]
The women have very simple ideas of adornment. They generally take the
form of silver necklets and the red fillet bound in their hair.[11]
Their dress is composed of the picturesque guanaco-skin _capa_, or
mantle, worn with the wool inside. Woman, to tell the truth, holds no
such bad position among the Patagonian Indians. She does the cooking,
but little else that can be called hard work, except the taking down
and pitching of the _toldos_ when the tribe break camp. They carry on
a slack industry in the form of weaving _ponchos_ from guanaco
wool. Some species of earth is used for dyeing the wool, but the
resulting colours are dull. In this particular the Tehuelches differ
from the Indians of the northern pampas, whose dyeing materials are
derived from herbs, and give brighter tints. These _ponchos_ and
saddle-rugs made by the _chinas_ are much prized and sought after as
curiosities, hence the makers demand very high prices for them--even
up to thirty or forty dollars each.
The women also spend some of their time in sewing together the skins
of guanaco or ostriches into rugs, using sinews for thread. Rugs of
this kind and bunches of ostrich feathers form the staple commodities
which they offer at the settlements for sale.
The hair of the adult animal, being harsh and coarse, is of less value
in the market than that of the young guanaco; therefore the hunters
endeavour to secure chiefly the pelts of the young guanaco, some of
the rugs being even made from the skin of the unborn, which is cut out
of the mother a few days previous to the date when they would
naturally be dropped. At certain seasons enormous numbers of these
pelts are to be seen drying, pegged out, beside the Indian _toldos_.
The time of year during which the hunting of guanaco _chicos_, or
little ones, is carried on includes the latter half of October and the
month of November.
I am afraid it must be confessed that the Tehuelches are a very lazy
race. Nearly everything which makes any demand upon their
energies--with the exception of hunting--seems too much trouble for
them to do. Few individuals become even comparatively rich, and even
then live none the better for it. One could never guess whether a man
were rich or poor by his dress; he carries no sign of improved
circumstances in his person or bearing. The owner of two thousand
beasts will come into camp and sit by your fire, putting in a plea
with the humblest for a cupful of _maté_. Occasionally an Indian will
act as a guide across the empty distances of the pampas. They have an
excellent idea of the value of their services and of the paper _peso_
of the Argentine Republic. They set a high price upon themselves--a
_vaqueano_, or guide, demanding five dollars a day or seventy dollars
a month.
But however this quality may seem to approximate to civilisation, the
customs with which he still surrounds the events of birth, sickness,
and death are the old cruel forms that have been perpetuated through
the ages, and they stamp him as remaining even to this day the very
slightly diluted savage.
In some cases when a child is born, a cow or mare is killed, the
stomach taken out and cut open, and into this receptacle while still
warm the child is laid. Upon the remainder of the animal the tribe
feast, and when they feast they carry out the notion thoroughly. After
eating their fill, they lie about gorged and half insensible and let
the world spin on. This is a quiet festivity, and only takes place in
this modified form when the tribe happen to be out of fire-water.
But should there be liquor at hand, the younger women, who never drink
on such occasions, go round beforehand and gather up every knife,
hatchet, or, in fact, all and any weapon they can find, and bury them
in some hidden spot about the camp.[12] This custom, which is in its
own way pathetic, speaks for itself. Under the influence of liquor the
nature of the peaceable Indian becomes completely changed. It maddens
him, and the dance round the fires often ends in a free fight.
A variation of the foregoing birth-ceremony is yet more savage. If a
boy is born, his tribe catch a mare or a colt--if the father be rich
and a great man among his people, the former; if not, the latter--a
lasso is placed round each leg, a couple round the neck, and a couple
round the body. The tribe distribute themselves at the various ends of
these lassos and take hold. The animal being thus supported cannot
fall. The father of the child now advances and cuts the mare or colt
open from the neck downwards, the heart, &c., is torn out, and the
baby placed in the cavity. The desire is to keep the animal quivering
until the child is put inside. By this means they believe that they
ensure the child's becoming a fine horseman in the future.[13]
If an Indian dies the place becomes accursed. The camp is immediately
removed to a fresh locality. When the dead man or woman is buried,
certain ceremonies are observed about the grave, evidently with a view
to enabling the departed to start in another life with an adequate
outfit. Horses and dogs are slaughtered, so that he may have the means
to pursue and kill the guanaco in the land of ghosts. Food and dead
game are also placed in the grave to supply his needs at the outset of
the new existence. Should the dead happen to be a child or a person of
tender years, fillies and colts are slaughtered at the burial.
In former times, and in fact until quite recent years, it used to be
the custom to place beside the corpse the silver-mounted horse-gear of
the dead man, and to close the grave upon it. In a land where life
depends not infrequently upon the strength of your raw-hide
head-stall, for instance, the value of sound gear is properly
appreciated; therefore this particular precaution for the welfare of
the dead shows a very practical solicitude on the part of the
survivors. To-day the Tehuelches still bury these possessions in the
grave, but the custom is only continued with a reservation. Instead of
leaving the valuable gear under the earth for all time, they now at
the end of a twelvemonth dig it up again. How they reconcile this
economical arrangement with the comfort of their lost friend I do not
know, but it may be suggested that they imagine the inhabitant of
another world has had full time in the course of a year to make
suitable new gear for himself.
The religion of the Indians is interesting. It consists, of course, in
the old simple beliefs in good spirits and devils, but chiefly devils,
which, with variations dependent on climate and physical environment,
represent all over the world the spiritual creeds of uncivilised
races. The dominant Spirit of Evil, as feared by the Tehuelches, is
called the Gualicho. And he abides as an ever-present terror behind
their strange, free, and superstitious lives. They spend no small
portion of their time in either fleeing from his wrath or in
propitiating it. You may wake in the dawn to see a band of Indians
suddenly rise and leap upon their horses, and gallop away across the
pampa, howling and gesticulating. They are merely scaring the Gualicho
away from their tents back to his haunts in the Cordillera--the wild
and unpenetrated mountains, where he and his subordinate demons groan
in chosen spots the long nights through.
The expedition under my command happened to encamp near one such place
upon the southern shore of Lake Rica. It was a moonlight night, and
loud rushing noises broke the peace of every hour of it. There
happened to be a huge glacier on the opposite side of the lake, from
which great pieces became detached at frequent intervals (for the mass
of the glacier overhung the cliff), and these plunged with strange,
loud explosions, I might almost call them, into the water. Such are
the noises that terrify the Indian; he cannot explain them, and it is
small wonder they excite his fears in the highest degree. For it must
be remembered that in all practical ways the Tehuelche is a very brave
man. Yet no pay can tempt him within the region of the Cordilleras,
where to his superstitious mind the near presence of the Gualicho is
manifested by those awful groanings and sounds which no human agency
known to him could by any possibility produce.
In common with other savage peoples, the Tehuelches believe the Good
Spirit to be of a far more quiescent habit than the spirits of evil.
Long ago, at the epoch of Creation perhaps, the Good Spirit made one
effort for the benefit of mankind,[14] but since then he has been
otherwise occupied, and shown himself little interested with earthly
matters. Like Baal, he is perchance upon a journey, or perchance he is
sleeping. The result is the same; his worshippers must take care of
themselves as well as they can, and the best method which offers is to
ward off by all means in their power the attacks of the maleficent
influence. For the Gualicho is of a very active disposition, and shows
no scorn of small things. On the contrary, he is quite capable of
descending upon a single Indian to punish him for an offence and to
work him harm.
[Illustration: CHILDREN OF THE TOLDOS]
It is a humiliating reflection that the great mass of peoples have
always been, and will always be, far more ready and fervent in
propitiating an evil spirit, or endeavouring to avert the action of
any punishing power, than in seeking the favour of the Good Spirit or
returning him thanks for benefits received. Human nature under the
frock-coat of civilisation is much the same as under the _capa_ of the
Tehuelche.
By inference one can see that the Patagonian believes in a future
life--a life much on the lines of his earthly one, but abounding in
those things which he most desires, and which here he finds in short
measure. I only know that the land he is going to after death is a
land flowing, not with milk and honey, but with grease. On the pampas
of life here below the guanaco is lean and seldom yields an ounce of
fat, and as I have myself experienced the craving for fat, or
fat-hunger, I know it to be a very real and uncomfortable demand of
the human system. But in the Patagonian Beyond the guanaco herds will
be plump and well provided with supplies of suet, and the
califate-bushes always laden with ripe and purple berries.
The traditions of the tribes go back to the epoch when they hunted on
foot and used bows and arrows, as well as the _bolas_, armed with a
large single ball of stone. That period may be one hundred, or
possibly a hundred and fifty, years ago. Then a tribe of Pampa Indians
rode down out of the north and brought to the Tehuelches the
inestimable boon of horses.
At the present day no worse evil can happen to an Indian than to be
left without a horse and dependent on his own legs. He rides
perpetually, and in consequence has almost lost the walking
capabilities of other men.[15] He lives upon horseback, and there
earns his living, so to speak. With his dogs he rides down his game,
but he has no skill in tracking any more than the dogs. But, for all
that, his sight is keen; the quality of extraordinary long-sightedness,
which distinguishes men used to scanning vast levels of sea or land,
is essentially his.
The Tehuelche, although in many ways offering a complete contrast, yet
in some points forms a strange parallel to the Esquimaux. The
Esquimaux has never seen a horse, the Tehuelche never uses a boat,
although his land abounds in sheets of water. Both races are eminently
sluggish and peaceable. Both fear evil spirits, which they fancy live
in particular localities. It is indeed a far cry from Greenland to
Patagonia, but if you substitute the horse for the kayak and the seal
for the guanaco, you will find that, although separated by space and
race and circumstance, a certain resemblance between the people of the
Far South and of the Far North exists. And of both races little evil
can be said.
These primitive peoples, living close to nature, divided from man's
original state only by the thinnest and filmiest of partitions, attain
in a wonderful degree the art of doing without things. The Esquimaux
starts upon a long day's hunting, with the thermometer marking many
degrees below zero, upon nothing save a drink of water! A luxury such
as coffee is said to enervate him.[16] The Patagonian Indian rides out
of a morning having taken nothing at all in the way of sustenance. But
he puts a pinch of salt in his belt, and when his dogs pull down their
first guanaco or ostrich, he draws off the blood and swallows it mixed
with salt.
The tribes live to a considerable extent on guanaco, and it is
practically their life-work to follow the wanderings of the herds
through the changing seasons. But the flesh of the ostrich is more
palatable, and is, consequently, preferred when it can be procured.
They drink _maté_ in large quantities, which, as has been shown, is
the universal habit on the pampas, where it is, in fact,
indispensable, supplying, as it does, to a certain extent, the place
of vegetables, besides having the valuable quality of refreshing and
invigorating in a quite extraordinary degree.
They rarely smoke pure tobacco; it is too precious. They mix it with
about 80 per cent. of califate-wood shavings. Once, when short of
tobacco, I tried their mixture, and in truth there are many worse
smokes upon the English and American markets. The califate is
certainly a little acrid, but burns with a very blue smoke. I fancy
one could get on tolerably well with this faked tobacco, aided by a
bit of imagination and a strong throat.
[Illustration: TEHUELCHE MATRONS]
For the most part the tribes use stone pipes of a very singular
coffin-like shape. One Indian, however, possessed a silver pipe, the
stem of which had begun life as a _bombilla_, or silver tube for
drinking _maté_ through. Musters mentions frequently seeing the men
become insensible after smoking, which would lead to the supposition
that they use some drug corresponding in its effects to opium. I never
observed a single instance of this sort, although I smoked the
camp-fire pipe on many occasions with Tehuelches. In fact, of those I
met, two out of three were not smokers at all.
The language of these people is very guttural, and one word is used to
signify a number of different things, which proves its elementary and
simple character. In most of their camps Spanish is understood more or
less, and with even a slight knowledge of this tongue one can get on
very well.
Practically the Patagonian is governed by no tribal laws. He does not
need their restraint, for, save when drunk, he seldom commits crimes
of greater or less magnitude. In politics he is democratic apparently,
for though it is true that a _cacique_ is at the head of each camp,
his authority seems limited to ordering the plan of the hunt. If any
individual objects he can leave the community, an alternative
extremely distasteful to so gregarious a people. Quarrels and fights
are of very rare occurrence, except when there is drink in the tents.
The natural peacefulness of the Indian is certainly commendable, for
his muscular development is enormous. He can tear the skin from a
guanaco after merely raising enough with his knife to give him a
hand-grip.
Once it was a free and a happy life that they lived, with fortunes
ruled by the changing of the seasons. In those days, five-and-twenty
years ago, they were scattered throughout the country, moving along
the Indian trail. Now, in the whole of my long travel through
Patagonia, I came upon only three encampments of them, and I have
reason to believe I visited nearly every one that exists at the
present day. It is probable that I may be their last chronicler; they
will be brushed off the face of the earth by the sweeping besom that
deals so hardly with aboriginal races, and is known as "civilisation."
The cause of their disappearance is not far to seek. You may dust a
savage people with Martinis and increase their manhood, if the
punishment be not severe and too prolonged, but as sure as the whisky
bottle--the raw, cheap, rot-gut country spirit--is introduced among
them, a primitive people is doomed. In all sorts of places in the
world I have seen this baleful influence at work.
The Indians, as I knew them, are a kind-hearted, docile and lazy race.
In all the dealings I had with them I found them invariably most
courteous. Treat them as you desire they should treat you, and not in
the odious "poor-devil-of-a-heathen, beast-of-a-savage" sort of style,
which obtains with some of our own countrymen abroad, I am sorry to
say, and you will receive a grave and quiet consideration, and they
will call you _buen hombre_, a good man.
Progress, the white man's shibboleth, has no meaning for the
Patagonian. He is losing ground day by day in the wild onward rush of
mankind. Our ideas do not appeal to him. He has neither part nor lot
in the feverish desires and ambitions that move us so strongly. As his
forefathers were, so is he--content to live and die a human item with
a moving home, passing hither and thither upon the waste and open
spaces of his native land. He is far too single-minded and too
dignified to stoop to a cheap imitation. He does not shout aloud that
he is the equal of the white man, as more vulgar races do. It has
often struck me that the primitive races of the world might be put
under two heads--the men of silence and the men of uproar. Among the
men of silence we have the Zulu, the North American Indian, the
Tehuelche, and some others. These silent peoples cannot exist, like
the negroes, as the camp followers of civilisation. They have not the
ya-hoop imitative faculty of the negro race. They are hunters, men of
silence and of a great reserve. When they meet with the white man,
they do not rush open-mouthed to swallow his customs.
The men of silence will, in the savage state, take a hint as quickly
as an English gentleman; the men of uproar will only accept a hint
when it is backed by a command. The Tehuelche will not remain at a
camp-fire where he is not wanted. He lacks passion, perhaps, but
appreciation pleases him. His dignified courtesy can best be
exemplified by a story.
[Illustration: A TEHUELCHE BEAUTY]
At one time, while we were travelling across the pampas and had camped
for the night, an Indian rode in upon us in the twilight. The Indian
did not talk Spanish, nor could we speak Tehuelchian. In silence he
joined us at our evening meal and stopped afterwards to smoke a pipe
of tobacco, then he got to horse and rode away.
The next morning our horses were missing; they had evidently strayed
during the night. I went out to look for them, and after a time saw
them far away across the pampa advancing towards me in a compact mob.
A rider was driving them up. As soon as he saw me, and I had
recognised our guest of the preceding evening, he sent forward the
horses at a gallop in my direction, and, wheeling round, was off and
out of sight in a moment. He did not wait to be thanked, and yet it
was obvious, from the condition of the horses, that he must have found
them a long way off and driven them for a considerable distance. It is
in courtesies of this kind that the silent peoples excel.
I am no wild admirer of the noble savage. He is, generally speaking, a
highly objectionable person. But to see a race--so kindly,
picturesque, and gifted with fine qualities of body and mind--such as
the Tehuelches, absolutely at hand-grips with extinction, seems to me
one of the saddest results of the growing domination of the white man
and his methods of civilisation.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] There is, however, a great variation in the development of the
lower limbs in different individuals.
[8] This name is preferred by the Indians themselves. To call them
_los Indios_ is a breach of etiquette. _Paisano_ means, of course, son
of the land, a title in which the Tehuelche takes pride.
[9] The evil spirit is supposed to take up its quarters behind the
_toldos_.
[10] While prosecuting the inquiries which led to the compilation of
this account of the Tehuelches it was thought that the author desired
to take a bride from the _toldos_. He was informed that seven mares
would purchase a young and efficient helpmate.
[11] Tehuelche beauties are not above wearing a tail of false hair.
[12] On the occasions I describe, even the _asadores_ (iron spits
three feet in length and sharpened at the end which enters the ground)
are taken away and buried by the young women.
[13] These customs are now dying out.
[14] According to Tehuelche beliefs, the Good Spirit created the
animals in the caves of a certain mountain called "God's Hill," and
gave them to his people for food.
[15] Here I disagree with Captain G. C. Musters, who claims excellent
walking powers for the Tehuelches. That they can walk well if forced
to do so is possible, but we need look no farther than their boots to
perceive that they rarely go afoot. The Patagonian pampas are covered
with thorn and the thin foot-covering of the Indians would be torn to
pieces in the course of a two-hours tramp over such ground.
[16] Nansen's "Esquimaux Life."