166 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, 03 



Neither among the Onas nor among the Yahgans does there appear 

 to be any fixed social law or tribal feeling about the matter. 



Formerly marriages between members of the three Fuegian tribes 

 were more frequent (Th, Bridges, Tc, 234), especially in border dis- 

 tricts (cf. supra in Introduction), At the present time an Ona man 

 marries a Yahgan or Alacaluf an woman only when there are no Onan 

 women available (C, Gallardo, 216). 



Among the Yahgans and Onas the newly married couple go as a 

 rule to live with the husband's clan, although among the former the 

 man more frequently remaiiis with the woman's parents temporarily, 

 rendering them certain services (Hyades, c[, 378). 



Monogamy, Polygamy, Polyandry 



There is no pol^^andry among either the Yahgans (Th. Bridges, Ti, 

 210) or the Onas (Beau voir, l, 207). 



As to polygaiiiy, there is no tribal sentiment apparently, at least 

 among the Yahgans and Onas, against a man having two or even more 

 wives, yet, de facto, monogamy is the more common rule. 



A. Alacaluf and Chonos. — Father Garcla's Chonos were monog- 

 amous, he tells us (a, 42). Byron's Chono (?) cacique had, how- 

 ever, two wives (a, 136). Dr. Skottsberg found monogamy to be 

 the rule among the West Patagonian channel natives, although some 

 men had two wives (d, 596; c, 97). 



B. Yahgans. — The custom differed. ''In some places the rule 

 is to have one wife; in others many have two, some three and even 

 up to four " (Th. Bridges, 7i, 206). Bigamy was of common occur- 

 rence, in most cases the two wives being sisters (Th. Bridges, e, 332; 

 Ti, 210). "Although there are quite a large number of men who have 

 two, three, or even four wives, the more common custom ['riiabitudc'] 

 is to have only one" (Hyades, q, 378; cf. in same sense. Martial, 198, 

 "rarement trois et meme quatre femmes; par fois deux, le plus sou- 

 vent ime"; Mission Terre de Feu, 311). Dr. Lovisato simply states 

 (b, 150) that a man has from one to five wives, Prof. Furlong (j) 

 rarely beyond tlu-ee, and Dr. Spegazzini (a, 10) that it is not rare to 

 find men with four or even five wives. Capt. Bove says: "Un uomo 

 sposa quante donne cgli crede: raramente pero si vedono con piu di 

 quattro mogli" (b, 136; a, 793; c, 127-128; d, Arch., 292). Dr. Cora, 

 whose articles are based on Capt. Bove's report, says a little inexactly 

 (234) that ''un uomo ha generalmente quattro mogli" — a slight error 

 followed by Prof. Keane {a, 345; d, 303). 



As Mr. Bridges and the members of the French Cape Horn expedi- 

 tion had much more experience among the Yahgans than had the 

 members of the Italo-Argentinian expedition, it is more probable 

 that the former authorities' estimate is the truer one, namely, domi- 

 nant monogamy with, however, considerable polygamy. 



