86 



BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



lUULL. fiS 



Falkner, Thomas 



A description of Patagonia and the 

 adjoining parts of South America, 

 Hereford-London, 1774; Germ, tr., 

 Gotha, 1775; Fr. tr., Lausanne, 1787; 

 Span. tr. in de Angelis, i; a more accu- 

 rate Span. tr. by Samuel A. Lafone 

 Quevedo, Buenos Aires, 1911. 



Father Falkner gives two much quoted and 

 very perplexing aecoimts of the "Vuta-Huilli- 

 ches" (pp. 98-99) and of the " Yacana-cunnees " 

 (pp. 93-93, 111). Neither is based on personal 

 experience. The source for the former is appar- 

 ently "the relations of the missionaries" (p. 90); 

 the description of the Yacana-cunnees was de- 

 rived from " Tarau, the Yacana-cunnee Cacique," 

 whom Father Falkner knew personally. 



The "Vuta-Huilliches," a branch of the 

 Moluches or Araucanians, were divided, accord- 

 ing to the author, into three sections, the Chonos, 

 the Poy-yus or Pej'es, and the Kej'-jnis or Keyes; 

 they lived along the coast, and (p. 96), it would 

 seem, on both sides of the Cordillera, from on and 

 near the islands of Chiloe to the Strait. Whom 

 precisely Father Falkner meant by the Toy-jnis 

 and Key-yus may never be conclusively settled, 

 although of the Poyas ( = Poy-yus?) much is 

 written, especially in the older missionary 

 records. 



As for Father Falkner's Chonos, it is very 

 doubtful indeed if they were true Chonos at all. 

 They were supposed to have lived "on and near 

 the Islands of Chiloe " (p. 98), and reference is also 

 made (p. 82) to the "country of Chonos, on the 

 continent over against Chiloe. " But oiu- original 

 sources show the Chonos to have lived in the main 

 on the islands south of Chiloe. The Chonos, with 

 the other "Vuta-Huilliches," are said (p. 99) to 

 have- been bigger-bodied than their neighbors to 

 the north and to have spoken a "mixture of the 

 Moluche and Tehuel languages." This, too, is 

 contrary to what we Icnow of the true Chonos 

 from original sources. Cf. Introduction, pp. 

 34-36,41-42. The name Chono was sometimes 

 used in a very loose sense, and perhaps Father 

 Falkner's authority had reference to natives of 

 the Chilotan archipelago or of the adjoining main- 

 land. One thing, however, is clear— that is, the 

 account of the Chonos is as confused as it is con- 

 fusing. 



The identity of the " Yacana-cimnees " is al- 

 most equally problematical. From the state- 

 ments that they inhabited the eastern Fuegian 

 Islands (p. 91), lived chiefly on fish (p. Ill), and 

 had "light floats, like those of Chiloe" (p. Ill; 

 cf. also pp. 92-93), one might suppose they were 

 Canoe Indians: that they were sometimes carried 

 away as slaves by the Huilliches and Tehuelhets 

 (p. Ill) would suggest the same conclusion. 

 But " yacana-cunnee " apparently means "foot 

 people" (Lehmann-Nitsche, d, pp. 229-230), 

 and besides they were a tall people (Falkner, 

 p. Ill); while other details of the description 



Falkner, Thomas — Continued 



imply that they were a land people, for they lived 

 on both sides of the Strait (p. Ill), and those on 

 the south side had to cross the Strait to have com- 

 munication with the Yacana cacique, Tamu's 

 people (pp. 92-93). Hence, they must have been 

 eitherTehuelchesor Onas or both. Finally, they 

 used to have frequent communication with the 

 Spaniards and French who came from the Falk- 

 lands to get wood (p. 91), and used to "catch 

 ostriches with their bowls" (p. Ill); but the 

 French from the Falklands had contact with the 

 Alacaluf and Tehuelches (cf. Bougainville, 

 Duclos-Guyot), not, as far as the records go, with 

 the Onas; the rhea is confined to the mainland, 

 and the bolas had not been introduced among the 

 extreme southern Patagonians themselves until 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century 

 (Outes, o, pp. 427, 254). 



It looks, therefore, as if Father Falkner's 

 Yacana-cunnees were the extreme southern Pata- 

 gonians. They seem, however, to have been con- 

 fused to some extent with the Alacaluf in his 

 description. As far, then, as Onan anthropology 

 is concerned the most that can be inferred from 

 his account of the Yacana is that perhaps at that 

 date the Onas were in communication with their 

 mainland cousins and may possibly have used 

 at times some kind of water craft to cross the 

 Strait. 



From the foregoing we are justified in con- 

 cluding that in the present state of the evidence 

 it would not he safe to use Father Falkner's ac- 

 counts of either the Chonos or the Yacana-cun- 

 nees as giving dependable data for Chonoan or 

 Onan anthropology. 



Featherman, Americus 



Social hi.story of the races of mankind , 

 7 vols., London, 1881-1891. 



Contains (3d div., Chiapo- and Guarano- 

 Maranonians, pp. 501-508) a lengthy description 

 of the Fuegians, ])ased on about a dozen of the 

 better authorities from Capt. Cook to Capt. Bovc; 

 frequent inaccuracies. 



Feilitzen, von 



Om den italienska expeditionen till 

 Patagonien och Eldslandet under led- 

 ning- af lojtnant G. Bove. (In Yiner, 

 Stockholm, 1883, in, 77-93.) 



Account taken from Capt. Bove's report pub- 

 lished at Genoa. 



Fernandez y Gonzalez, Francisco 



Los lenguajes hablados por los iudi- 

 genas de la America Meridional, Madrid, 

 1893. 



Contains (pp. 72-74) a paragraph on the Cho- 

 noan language based on Brinton, and a few notes 

 on Yahgan grammar from Adam. 



