THE PATAGOXIANS. 5ol 



ing to Azara, any ideas of religion. He makes this latter 

 statement generally for all the Indians, and repeats it parti- 

 cularly for the following tribes namely, the Charruas, Min- 

 uanas, Aucas, Guaranys, Guayanas, Nalicuegas, Guasarapos, 

 Guatos, Mnaquiguilas, Guanas, Lenguas, Aguilots, Mocobys, 

 Abipones, and Paraguas ; yet it appears from other passages 

 that some at least of these tribes were believers in witchcraft 

 and in mysterious evil beings. 



Azara describes the language of the Guaranys as being the 

 most copious, and yet it was in many respects very deficient ; 

 for instance, they could only count up to four, and had no 

 words for the higher numbers, not even for five or six. It is 

 quite unnecessary to say that the marriage tie was little 

 regarded among them ; they married when they liked, and 

 separated again when they pleased. 



Infanticide was, in several of the tribes, the rule, rather 

 than the exception ; the women brought up but one child 

 each, and as they spared only the one which they thought 

 likely to be the last, it often happened that they were left 

 without any at all 



The Patagonmns. 



The inhabitants of the southern parts of South America, 

 although they are divided into numerous different tribes, may 

 be considered as falling into two great groups: the Patagonians, 

 or Horse Indians, on the East, who have horses but no canoes; 

 and the Chonos and Fuegians, or Canoe Indians, who have 

 canoes, but no horses, and who inhabit the tempestuous 

 islands on the south and west. 



The Yacana-kunny, who inhabit the north-eastern part of 

 Tierra del Fuego, are, properly speaking, not Fuegians, but 

 Patagonians, and resemble them in colour, stature, and cloth- 

 ing, except the peculiar boots. They live now pretty much 

 as the mainlanders probably did before the introduction of 



2 M 2 



