48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY fBrLr,. 63 



Goicueta's, the channels between the Gulf of Penas and the western 

 mouth of the Strait of Magellan are probably but little less sparsely 

 populated now than they were three centuries ago, but in the terri- 

 tory east of the western mouth of the Strait the aborigines have very 

 greatly decreased in number. Anthropological studies, if to be made 

 at all, must be made in the very near future. 



ONAS 



The Foot Indians of the island of Tierra del Fuego should be 

 classed with the Patagonians, but both anthropological usage and 

 geographical position sanction our including them among the Fue- 

 gians. 



Names 



The name varies somewhat: Dr. Moreno used O'ona (a, 1st ed., 

 459; 2d ed., 461; h, 201; c, 109); Dr. Spegazzini, Aona (a); Dr. 

 Segers, Aona (63); Dr. Brinton, Aoniks (c, 331). Admiral Fitz-Roy 

 has Oens or Oens-men (a, 205-206, 325-326). The commonest form 

 is Ona. It is the name given them by the Yahgans and is derived 

 immediately from the Yahgan onepin ( = Tierra del Fuego Island == 

 Onas' + land), onachaga ( = Beagle Channel = Onas' 4- channel) (Th. 

 Bridges, h, 206; Hyades, ([, 15, 283). 



Ona may be ultimately a corruption of tsoneka, ts'ona'ca, tsTi'n, 

 clio'n, chon (Furlong, k; Lehmann-Nitsche, d, 232; Chamberlain, a, 

 95); or perhaps is derived from on, a word frequently used by the 

 Onas (Beauvoir, 6, 55, 202), or else from onan, the Yahgan word for 

 north wind (Furlong, Ic; r, 183). 



Whether there is any connection between Ona and van Noort's 

 "Enoo" (h, 1st ed., 21; Fr. tr., 1610 ed., 15; Commelin, i, 10; de 

 Brosses, i, 299) is very doubtful. The boy captured by van Noort 

 possibly referred to the Onas when he spoke of the gigantic Tirimenen 

 of the land of Coin (ibid.). 



Father Falkner was told that the Yacana-cunnee of extreme 

 southeastern Patagonia extended also to the other side of the Strait 

 (111). The identity of this people is discussed in the Author Bibh- 

 ography under Falkner. Dr. Lehmann-Nitsche (d, 229-230, following 

 Falkner) derives the name from the Patagonian yacana-Jcon' , "foot 

 people." 



The Rev. Mr. Bridges also used the word Wuas to denote the Onas 

 (e, 332). 



The Onas, with the exception of a nearly extinct subtribe in the 

 southeast, call themselves Shllk'nam (Lehmann-Nitsche, d, 233), 

 Shilkenam° (C. GaUardo, 97), Shelknam, Tshelkriam (Beauvoir, h, 

 202), Schelkenam (Cojazzi, 16), Shillkanen (Furlong, d, 219), 

 Shilk'anan, Sheik' enum (Fui'long, private communication), Shil'k'- 



