576 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Photo by Dr. Paul Hyades, fiwn the ' Mission Scientifique 

 du Cap Horn." 1 



FUEGIANS. 



known as Yahgans, and speak a dialect dis- 

 tinct from all the continental tongues; in 

 addition to this there is a second dialect 

 known as Alakaluf, which may be distantly 

 related to the Araucauian, and also a third 

 the Ona Avhich seems nearer to Pata- 

 gouian. Great differences are observable in 

 the accounts given of the Fuegians by different 

 observers as, for instance, Fitzroy and Darwin 

 on the one hand, and more recent travellers, 

 like Dr. P. Hyades, of the French expedition 

 to Cape Horn, on the other. It has been 

 suggested that such discrepancies are in great 

 part due to the alteration in the manners of 

 the natives by the English missionaries; and as 

 the older accounts are more likely to portray 

 the original habits of the people, the following 

 notes are culled from Darwin's narrative. 



In stature the Eastern Fuegians are compared by the last-named writer to the Patagonians; 

 the three young men seen by him being about 6 feet in height. Their skin is of a dirty 

 coppery-red colour; and at the time of Darwin's visit the only garment of the men on the 

 east coast was a mantle of guanaco-skin, with the hair outside, loosely thrown over the 

 shoulders. An old man forming the fourth of the party had a fillet of white feathers bound 

 round his head, partly confining his long and tangled black hair. Across his face ran two 

 broad bars of paint namely, a red one reaching from ear to ear and including the upper lip, 

 and a second of chalky white running above and parallel to the first, so as to include the 

 eyelids. The rest of the party were ornamented with streaks of charcoal powder. According 

 to the figures published by Dr. Hyades, two of which we have been permitted to reproduce, 

 white and red are now the colours most in vogue. Their language has been compared to a 

 man clearing his throat; but even in this manner few Europeans could produce such hoarse, 

 clicking, and guttural sounds as are uttered by Fuegians. 



These people formerly subsisted almost exclusively upon shell-fish, and consequently were 

 compelled frequently to shift their place of abode. Nevertheless, the large dimensions of 

 the shell-heaps, which often amount to many tons in weight, indicate that they returned at 

 intervals to the same spots. Unlike the Patagonians, they dwell in huts, or wigwams, which, 

 although used only for a few days, require some trouble to build. These huts consist of 

 some broken boughs stuck in the ground, and roughly thatched on one side with a few bundles 

 of grass and rushes. Even such wretched shelter against the inclemency of a severe climate 

 was not, however, always available, Darwin mentioning an instance where three naked Fuegians 

 spent the night on the ground. It has been already mentioned that the tribes on the east 

 coast wear a guanaco-skin mantle; among those of the west coast the place of this is taken 

 by seal-skins, while some of the central tribes wear an otter-skin, or some other small covering, 

 which is barely sufficient to cover the back as far down as the loins, being laced across the 

 chest by strings, and shifted from side to side according to the direction of the wind. 



