1892.] 251 fBrinton 



Language of the Onas (Aonas). 



Up to the present time no linguistic material from Eastern Tierra 

 del Fuego has been available ; and consequently the ethnic affini- 

 ties of the tribes that live there have been but guessed at. 



Collectively these tribes are known to the Tehuel-het of Southern 

 Patagonia as Yakana-cunny, ''foot Indians," as having no horses 

 and but (e\v boats, their journeys are made on foot ; while the Yah- 

 gans refer to their territory as One(in, the " land of men," whence 

 the appellation " Onas." 



The Onas are taller and stronger than the aquatic Yahgans and 

 Alikulufs, who inhabit the Fuegian archipelago, and are described 

 as in face and figure closely resembling the typical North American 

 Indian (Popper). For this reason, apparently, it has been assumed 

 by recent writers that they are a branch of the tall and large- 

 limbed Patagonians north of the Straits of Magellan. 



This is the opinion advanced by Drs. Hyades and Deniker in 

 their Report in Vol. vii of the Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn 

 (Paris, 1 891). They acknowledge, however, that they had been 

 unable to obtain any linguistic material on which to institute com- 

 parisons. 



Such material has fortunately been secured lately by Dr. Poli- 

 doro A. Segers, and he has printed a short vocabulary in the Bole- 

 tin del Instituto Geografico Argentina (Buenos Ayres, 1891), for 

 which he claims exactness. It is printed apparently in the pho- 

 netics of the Spanish alphabet, which, one would think, would be 

 far from adequate to express the sounds of the language, if we may 

 credit the statement of the English missionary, Mr, Brydges, that 

 they are peculiarly harsh and guttural, '' resembling the sounds 

 made by a person who is gargling with difficulty !" 



The location of the Onas is described in the Boletin above 

 referred to, both by Dr. Julio Popper and Dr. Segers. The tribe 

 is divided into a number of bands, in constant feud with each 

 other, and all without fixed habitations. To the north, between 

 the Bay of St. Sebastian and Cape Sunday, are the Parrikens, the 

 Sheila and the Uenenke ; to the south, from about Cape Penas to 

 the Straits of Lemaire, roam the Kau-ketshe, the Koshpijom and 

 the Loualks. These differ among themselves in dialect, but not to 

 such an extent as to be mutually unintelligible. The precise band 



