34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buix. 63 



archii)plagos are nearly always described as of middle stature. Of 

 the various names by which they were known, the most preferable 

 in view both of anthropological usage and of probable native origin 

 seems to be that of Chonos. In the followmg pages and throughout 

 the present work this name will he used for the canoe-using Indians 

 of the territory between the Guaitecas Islands and the Taitao Penin- 

 sula, the Gulf of Penas or the Guaianecos Islands. There may pos- 

 sibly have been more distinct tribes than one m this region, but there 

 is no clear evidence to that effect and provisionally at least we may 

 look on all the Indians of the district as one people. 



A. Chonoan Language 



Admiral Fitz-Roy published (h, 142) as Chonoan, three words: 

 yerri yupon, "Good Deity"; ydccp-ma, "bad spirit"; cuhha, "white 

 men of the moon." These words were obtained no doubt from Capt. 

 Low, who did not speak the native language. But even accepting 

 them as correct, they still give no adequate basis for comparison with 

 other languages. One of the words, ydcc^-ma, is vaguely suggestive 

 of the Alacalufan ydkdr, "black face"; the bad spirit was "supposed 

 to ])e like an immense black man" (Fitz-Roy, a, 190). It may be 

 recalled, too, that Admiral Fitz-Roy 's "Chonos" were the natives of 

 the channels south of Cape Tres Montes, most if not all of which 

 territory is at present Alacalufan. 



That the Chonos spoke a language quite distinct from the Arau- 

 canian appears to be amply established from first-hand evidence. 

 Cortes Hojea understood some Araucanian, for he conversed with the 

 Araucanian-speaking natives of Coronados Gulf; but his chronicler, 

 Goicueta, distinctly states that the "HuiUis" south of the Gulf of 

 St. Martin, that is, Corcovado Gulf, spoke another language (Goi- 

 cueta, 514, 518). Father Del Techo explicitly affirms that Delco, 

 the Guaitecas Islands chief, used "an interpreter who knew the 

 Chilotan tongue," wliich was an Araucanian dialect, in his interview 

 with the missionaries (bk. 6, ch. 9, 159), that Father Ferrufino used 

 an interpreter to translate into Chono the prayers and act of contri- 

 tion (160), and that the HuiUis to the south of the Chonos nearer the 

 strait "stlopos' pro vocibus edunt" and "when taken to Chiloe, were 

 of no use except to frighten birds away from the gi-ain fields, until 

 they learned the Chilotan tongue" (160). 



Father Venegas is equally explicit (letter quoted by Lozano, ii, 

 456; cf. also ii, 560) ; his missionary companion, Father Matheo Este- 

 van, took great pains to learn the Chonoan language spoken by the 

 Guaitecas Islanders, and, although he already spoke at least some 

 Chilotan (Lozano, ii, 448), m making his translations into Chono, he 

 used a native Chono interpreter who understood Chilotan. In saying 



< Stlopus=sound made by striking the inflated cheeks. 



