234 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



the women to cut and grind these stones, but in some cases iron or even 

 copper balls are used, the metal being preferred when attainable on ac- 

 count of its being smaller for a given weight. There is some variation 

 in the arrangement also : (somai) two bolas at the end of 9-feet thongs; 

 (achico) three bolas, one on a rather longer thong; or one of the thongs 

 has attached to its mid-length a pair of balls on the end of three-foot 

 thongs. The range of the bolas is from 30 to 40 yards. The natives, 

 when in danger, wear several cuirasses of stiff raw-hide as a guard against 

 them, the armor being put on like a poncho — over the head, which is 

 thrust through a slit in the hide. The helmet is of double bull-hide. 

 The bolas is used throughout the Argentine Eepublic, by the Gran 

 Chaco Indians of La Plata, the Araucaniaus (called by them laqui), ami 

 the Patagonians; being, in a large portion of the territory mentioned, the 

 principal means of capturing wild animals. The guauaco, a species of 

 llama about the size of a deer, is the main dependence for food and 

 clothing of the Patagonians. 64 See Muster's account of the Tehuelche 

 Indians. 65 



Passing at one bound to the other extremity of the American Conti- 

 nent, we find the Eskimo 66 in possession of the same weapon, but on a 

 smaller scale, as befits the game it is intended to capture. It consists 

 of eight or nine strings, about thirty inches long, and fastened together, 

 their free ends being attached to little weights like plumb-bobs, made 

 of bone, walrus-tooth, or stone. The cords are of twisted sinews or 

 intestines. The balls are whirled around the head two or three times 

 and then sent flying through the air like a large cobweb, lappiug with 

 surprising quickness around any object which may be struck by the 

 cords. It is used principally in catching birds. 



The lasso was shown in the exhibit of the Argentine Confederation, in 

 the main building. It is a rope 40 feet long, made of raw-hide strips 

 plaited into a round rope, excepting a few feet at the noose end, which 

 is plaited square and is fastened around an iron ring, through which the 

 lasso passes to form the noose. The Araucaniaus use a lasso of silk- 

 grass fiber from the leaves of an agave. It has no ring for the noose, 

 but a loop of the agave fiber covered with leather. In using the lasso, 

 the ring is taken in the left hand and a noose six feet in length is made; 

 the right hand then grasping the cord and the ring, the rider takes 

 another six feet in his hand and whirls the noose around his head 

 until it becomes circular, when he hurls it at the object, throwing after 

 it the remainder of the rope, which hangs in coils on his left arm. As 

 it pusses through the air the noose becomes smaller, so that the diameter 

 of the noose is graduated to the size of the object it is intended to cap- 

 ture. It is not a little singular that this form of lasso, a noose running 

 in a metallic ring, was a weapon in the armies of the former Singhalese 

 monarch. 67 



64 Wood, ii., p. 532. « "At Homewith the Patagonians," p. 166. 



« Wood, ii., p. 711. 67 Tennent's " Ceylon," i, 499. 



