422 THE POLAR WOULD. 



current, they take tliom for evil spirits, and address them with a loud voice. If 

 by chance the trees are swept by less rai)idly or are driven round in a wliirl- 

 pool, they believe that this takes place for the purpose of hearing them. They 

 then make them liberal jjromises, which they faithfully keep. They cast their 

 weapons, their ornaments, sometimes even their l]orses with bound feet, into 

 the water, fully peisuaded that by this sacrifice they liave averted the misfor- 

 tunes that otherwise would have befallen them. Like many other savage na- 

 tions, tliey believe in a future paradise, where they expect to find again all that 

 they jiri/A'd on earth. For this reason they immolate over the graves of their 

 frientls all the animals that belonged to them, and inter with them all they pos- 

 sessed. 



The asti-onomical knowledge of the Patagonians is surprising in a peo]jle 

 raid<ing so low in the scale of civilization. Continually migrating over llieir arid 

 land, they soon felt the necessity of directing their movements during the day 

 by the })osition of the sun, during the night by the stars ; and thus they gradu- 

 ally learned to observe the march of the constellations, and to note the times of 

 their appearance and disappearance, giving them names, so as to be able to com- 

 municate their observations to each other. Their lively fancy traces in the 

 starry firmament the picture of the Indian's hunting expedition. The Milky 

 Way is the path on which Ik; follows the ostrich; the "Three Kings" are the 

 bolas, or balls, with which he strikes the bird whose feet form the Southern 

 Cross ; and the Magellanic clouds are heaps of its feathers that have been col- 

 lected by its pursuer. 



When the Patagonians speak of the direction they intend to follow, from 

 north to south or from east to west, they always indicate the constellations ; so 

 that in these South American plains, as )n those of Chaldea, a similar necessity 

 has led man to lay the first foundations of astronomical knowledge. 



The Patagonians are divided into a number of small migratory tribes, each 

 consisting of, at the utmost, thirty or forty families. As they live exclusively 

 by the chase, it is evident that a few days would suffice to destroy or to drive 

 away the game of a gi-eat extent of territory were they to assemble in larger 

 numbers. Not to perish of want, Lhey are thus compelled to wander from 

 place to place in small companies, and to carry along with them their leathern I 

 toldos, or tents. The toldo reposes on a frame of poles stuck into the earth, and 

 is scarcely higher than six feet m its centre, so that one can hardly imagine how 

 a family of tall Patagonians can live in so small a space. The door is invaria- 

 bly to the east, so that early in the morning the chief of the family may sprinklt 

 before it a few drops of water as an offering to the rising sun, for were this sac- 

 rifice to be neglected, the evil spii-its would infalhbly wreak their vengeance 

 upon the inmates of the tent. Ilorse-hides, or guanaco skins coarsely sewn to 

 getlier, cover the frame, and afford but a scanty protection against the ram ant 

 the much more frequent wind. At the top, as in the Laplander's hut, an open 

 ing is left to let out the smoke. The heartli is in the middle, and close by Vv 

 some earthen vases, and large volute shells which serve as drinking-horns. Th 

 inmates lie on skins, or sit in a corner cross-legged, after the Oriential fashior 

 The excessive filth of these wretched tenements makes their poverty appear sti 



