The Chilians call their first progenitors Pegnt 

 Epatun, which signifies the brothers Epatun, 

 but of these patriarchs nothing but the name is 

 known. They also call them glyce, primitive 

 men, or men from the beginning, and in their 

 assemblies invoke them, together with their 

 deities,, crying out with a loud voice. Pom, pum, 

 pum, mart, mari, Epunamun, Amimalguen, Pent 

 Epatum. The signification of the three first 

 words is uncertain, and they might be considered 

 as interjections, did not the word pum, by which 

 the Chinese call the first created man, or the one 

 saved from the waters, induce a suspicion^ from 

 its similarity, that these have a similar signifi- 

 cation. The lamas, or priests of Thibet, from 

 the accounts of the natives of Indostan, are ac- 

 customed to repeat on their rosaries, the syllables 

 horn, ha, hum, or om, am, um, which in some 

 measure corresponds with what we have men- 

 tioned of the Chilians. 



That Chili was originally peopled by one 

 nation appears probable, as all the aborigines in- 

 habiting it, however independent of each other, 

 speak the same language, and have a similar ap| 

 pearance. Those that dwell in the plains are of 

 good stature, but those that live in the valleys of 

 the Andes, generally surpass the usual Weight of 

 man. The purer air which they respire^ and the 

 continual exercise to which they are accus 

 tomed among their mountains, may perhaps be 



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