August 9, 1883^ 



NATURE 



545 



average stature, according to D'Orbigny, is 5 feet 3 inches, 

 while the Yagans range from 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 

 4 inches, and the women from 4 feet 9 inches to 5 feet. 

 But in other respects they present a more debased ap- 

 pearance than their continental congeners, being distin- 

 guished by low brows, prominent zygomatic arches, large 

 pendent lips, flat nose, round face, loose, wrinkly skin 

 (' pelle grinzosa e cadente"), thin extremities, the legs 

 curved outwards. The black hair is of the usual American 

 texture, coarse, lank, and long, but in one district chestnut 

 and wavy, due, no doubt, to mixture with white blood. 1 



They neither tattoo nor paint the body, which is ex- 

 posed almost naked to the inclemency of an excessively 

 rigorous and stormy climate. In this respect the Fuegians 

 present a striking contrast to the Eskimo at the opposite 

 extremity of the continent, the general cut of whose warm 

 and comfortable attire may, according to Mr. E. B. 

 Tylor, be due to the influence of the old Norse settle- 

 ments in Greenland. Although Bove gives us two distinct 

 terms, accar and tumachi for house and hut respectively, 

 the dwellings themselves are all alike described as 

 wretched hovels, made of branches stuck in the ground 

 and loosely bound together in the Botocudo fashion. 

 More skill and care is displayed in the construction of 

 their beech wood canoes, which arc generally from fifteen 

 to twenty feet long and about two feet wide. In these 

 frail craft they navigate the intricate channels of their 

 storm-swept waters, and boldly pursue the whale and 

 dolphin often far out on the high seas beyond sight of 

 land ("spesso fuori dalla vista d'ogni terra''). Here, 

 however, it may be well to remember that similar state- 

 ments were constantly made of the Andaman islanders 

 until Mr. Mann recently showed that in their light out- 

 riggers they never venture far from the shore. 



Like the Araucanians the Yagans are polygamists, and, 

 like the followers of the Prophet, they have generally four 

 wives. But, while the Araucanians purchase their mates, - 

 the Fuegian bride is provided with a dowry consisting 

 usually of a canoe and a few harpoons. Nevertheless 

 all the hard work, such as fishing, hutbuilding, the kindling 

 and preservation of fire, falls to the share of the women, 

 who in return meet with nothing but the most brutal treat- 

 ment from their helpmates. " How often," writes Bove, 

 "have I seen men seated cosily round a good fire, while 

 the wretched women remained exposed to the snow, wind, 

 water, fishing for their idle and unmannerly husbands ! " 

 Notwithstanding their hard lot the women are exception- 

 ally fruitful ; but, on the other hand, a small percentage 

 only of the children resist the severity of the climate. 

 They leave the paternal roof at a very early age, and 

 begin to shift for themselves before reaching their teens. 

 In fact family ties can scarcely be said to exist, and the 

 only affection of which the Fuegian seems capable is 

 "self love." ''How often," again remarks the Italian 

 explorer, "have I seen the father devouring a hunch of 

 meat or bread, while round him stood wives and children, 

 their eyes riveted on the food, with features distorted by 

 hunger, rendered all the more painful at sight of others 

 being sated, timidly gathering the scraps dropping from 

 his lips, and falling rabidly on the remnants of the feast 

 contemptuously thrown to them by the ferocious head of 

 the household ! " 



Each family circle lives apart in absolute independence, 

 combining only in small tribal groups for the purpose of 



1 With this description may be compared that of the fourteen Araucanians 

 now encamped in the Jardio des Plantes. Paris, and figured in the Illustra- 

 tion of July 28. 1883 The low brow, high cheek-bone, flat nose, lank hair, 

 and general flat features give to both races a common Mongoloid expression, 

 such as is distinctly seen in the Guarani. Tupi, Botocudos, and so mi ny other 

 South American peoples. This expression seems in fact almost more pro- 

 nounced in the southern than in the northern races of the New World, and 

 it is certainly remarkable that the physical appearance of the Araucanians 

 and Fuegians should be even more suggestive of an Asiatic origin than is 

 that of the Eskimo and Athabascan groups. 



- " L'Araucanien peut prendre autant de femmes qu'il en peut nourrir et 

 payer aux parents, car les femmes s'achetent." — L Illustration. July 28. 

 1883. 



mutual defence against some common enemy. Thus it is 

 that the first germs of the community are sown by the 

 necessity of self-preservation, just as the fully organised 

 society is still kept together by the same overruling prin- 

 ciple. But in the Fuegian community the idea of head- 

 ship has not yet been evolved. No one claims the right 

 to assume the chieftaincy, or to meddle in the concerns 

 of his neighbour. Hunting or warlike excursions are 

 arranged by common consent, and the spoils of war or 

 the chase are equally distributed amongst the members 

 of the expedition. Certainly the Fuegian social system 

 seems to favour the views of those, rather, who hold that 

 everywhere the commonwealth preceded oligarchy and 

 the monarchy. As the monotheistic conception was 

 arrived at through pantheism and polytheism, so in the 

 social order the autocrat appears as the final outcome of 

 a rude communism and noKvKotpavia. 



The Yagans, however, seem to have scarcely reached 

 the pantheistic, or perhaps it would be more correct to 

 say the pananthropomorphic, state. Religious notions, 

 in the strict sense, cannot be said to exist where no clear 

 distinction has yet been dra- between the natural and 

 supernatural. Even with superstitious ideas they are but 

 little troubled (" sono pochissimo superstiziosi"), while 

 their indifference to the remains of the dead would seem 

 to imply that they have no anticipations of an after life. 

 To the naturalists of the Italian expedition they freely 

 parted with the crania of fathers, friends, and relations, 

 without the least outward symptoms of regret. In one 

 instance, however, a good deal of sentiment was expressed 

 by a young Yagan, who thus somewhat poetically addressed 

 the skull of his father : " Farewell, de ir father. You, 

 who when alive never saw aught but our snows and our 

 storms, are now going dead far far away !" This is the 

 language of one, in whom at least dim visions of another 

 existence seem to be dawning. 



Considering the extremely low state of their culture, 

 it requires a considerable degree of credulity to accept 

 the statement that their agglutinative langunge possesses 

 some 30,000 words, besides highly complex and elevated 

 grammatical forms ("ha circa 30,000 vocaboli, e forme 

 grammaticali molto complesse e elevate"). This is 

 naturally regarded as a sure proof that the Yagans have 

 had a much higher origin than might appear from their 

 present debased condition. But it will be safer to await 

 further proof before accepting the statement at all. Re- 

 serve is the more needed that we are told somewhat 

 mysteriously that this linguistic phenomenon was very 

 Utile studied by the explorers ("femoneno notato, quan- 

 tunque pochissimo studiato, dei nostri exploratori.") It 

 is also curious that, with such a copious vocabulary, of 

 which a few specimens are given, the same word yash 

 should have to do duty both for hand and finger, as well as 

 for head, this last, however, doubtless as a homophone, 

 or else through one of those mistakes which cannot 

 always be avoided even by careful students of barbarous 

 languages. The numerals do not seem to get beyond 

 five (cu-pash-pa, an obvious compound), which is again 

 somewhat inconsistent with a vocabulary of 30,000 words ! 

 But we may soon expect further light to be thrown upon 

 this point by the English missionaries, who are doing such 

 excellent w'ork among the Yagans of Beagle Channel, 

 and whose labours will doubtless soon be extended to the 

 whole of the Fuegian Archipelago. A. H. Keane 



THE ISCHIAN EARTHQUAKE 



THE report from the Central Observatory, by Prof, de 

 Rossi of Rome, shows that signs of the coming cata- 

 strophe were not wanting at the different meteorological 

 stations. What follows is, according to the Daily News 

 correspondent, the most interesting part of Prof, de 

 Rossi's report. 



" Several days before the 25th and 28th July the micro- 



