INDIAN KliLIC. 345 



wages. Until a father has a grown-up son, who 

 can by his labour pay the rent, there is no one, ex- 

 cept on occasional clays, to take care of his own 

 patch of ground. Hence extreme poverty is very 

 common among the labouring classes in this country. 



There are some old Indian ruins in this neighbour- 

 hood, and I was shown one of the 2:)erforated stones, 

 which Molina mentions as being found in many 

 places in considerable numbers. They are of a 

 circular flattened form, from five to six inches in 

 diameter, with a hole passing quite through the 

 centre. It has generally been supposed that they 

 were used as heads to clubs, although their form 

 does not appear at all well adapted for that pur- 

 pose. Burchell* states that some of the tribes in 

 Southern Africa dig up roots, by the aid of a stick 

 pointed at one end, the force and weight of which 

 is increased by a round stone with a hole in it, into 

 which the other end is firmly wedged. It appears 

 probable that the Indians of Chile formerly used 

 some such rude agricultural instrument. 



One day, a German collector in natural history, 

 of the name of Renous, called, and nearly at the 

 same time an old Spanish lawyer. I was amused 

 at being told the conversation which took place 

 between them. Renous sjoeaks Spanish so well, 

 that the old lawyer mistook him for a Chilian. 

 Renous, alluding to me, asked him what he thought 

 of the King of England sending out a collector to 

 their country to pick up lizards and beetles, and 

 to break stones. The old gentleman thought se- 

 riously for some time, and then said, " It is not 

 well — hmj UH gato encerrado aqul (there is a cat 

 shut up here). No man is so rich as to send out 

 people to pick up such rubbish. I do not like it : 

 if one of us were to go and do such things in Eng- 

 * Burchell's Travels, vol. li., p. 45. 



