XI.] THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 42/ 



a skilfully combined hierarchy. The population was divided 

 into decuries, and amongst the ten individuals who formed each 

 decury, the Inca or his representatives chose one, who became 

 the chief over the nine others. Five decuries had at their head 

 a decurion of superior rank ; fifty decuries a chief, who thus 

 commanded 500 men. Lastly, 100 decuries obeyed a supreme 

 chief, who received orders direct from the Inca 1 ." It was a kind 

 of communism, half religious, half military, in which everything 

 was artificial, nature stamped out, and the individual reduced to 

 a cipher, a numbered member of a clan or group, to which he 

 was tied for life, in which he could neither rise nor sink, hope 

 nor fear. The system was outwardly perfect, but soulless, and 

 so. like that of the Cundinamarcan Muyscas, collapsed at the first 

 clash with a handful of mounted Spanish brigands. 



Beyond the Maule, southernmost limits of all these effete 

 civilisations, man reasserted himself in the " South 



TH f> 



American Iroquois," as those Chilian aborigines Araucanians 

 have been called who called themselves Molu-che, 

 "Warriors," but are better known by their Quechuan designation 

 of Aucaes, "Rebels," whence the Spanish Aucans (Araucan, 

 Araucanian). These " Rebels," who have never hitherto been 

 overcome by the arms of any people, and whose heroic deeds in 

 the long wars Avaged by the white intruders against their freedom 

 form the topic of a noble Spanish epic poem", still maintain a 

 measure of national autonomy, as the friends and faithful allies 

 of the Chilian republic. Probably no people have ever carried 

 the sense of personal independence to greater lengths, and the 

 sentiment embodied with us in the half-jocular expression, " I'm 

 as good as my neighbour," would seem to be taken quite seriously 

 in Araucania. Here there never has been a central authority of 

 any kind ; not only are all the tribes absolutely free, but the same 

 is true of every clan, sept, and family group, which recognise no 

 masters, scarcely the paterfamilias himself, who does not even 

 venture to chastise his children or control his household. Need- 

 less to say, there are no slaves or serfs, no tribal laws or penal 



1 De Nadaillac, p. 438. 



- Alonzo de Ercilla'.s Araucana. 



