Life in Patagonia. 107 



aching limbs on the wet stony ground, with the 

 rug they permitted him to wear for only covering. 

 When the hunters were unlucky it was customary 

 to slaughter a horse for food. The wretched 

 animal would be first drawn up by its hind legs 

 and suspended from the branches of a great tree, 

 so that all the blood might be caught, for this is 

 the chief delicacy of the Patagonian savage. An 

 artery would be opened in the neck and the spout- 

 ing blood caught in large earthen vessels ; then, 

 when the savages gathered round to the feast, poor 

 Damian would be with them to drink his share of 

 the abhorred liquid, hot from the heart of the still 

 living brute. In autumn, when the apples were fer- 

 mented in pits dug in the earth and lined with horse 

 hides to prevent the juice from escaping, he would take 

 part, as became a true savage, in the grand annual 

 drinking bouts. The women would first go round 

 carefully gathering up all knives, spears, bolas, or 

 other weapons dangerous in the hands of drunken 

 men, to carry them away into the forest, where they 

 would conceal themselves with the children. Then 

 for days the warriors would give themselves up to 

 the joys of intoxication ; and at such times unhappy 

 Damian would come in for a large share of ridicule, 

 blows, and execrations ; the Indians being full of 

 boisterous fun or else truculent in their cups, and 

 loving above all things to have a KoJco-huinche, or 

 " white fool " for a butt. 



At length, when he came to man's estate, was 

 fluent in their language, and outwardly in all things 



