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The National Geographic Magazine 



arrow, and at present the latter weapon 

 is no longer seen among them. 



The changes wrought upon the Te- 

 huelches by the advent of the horse, is a 

 subject well worthy of the attention of 

 the anthropologist. To this professional 

 capacity I lay no claim, but I wish to men- 

 tion some observations made by myself 

 bearing directly upon this subject. Not 

 only was the advent of the horse the de- 

 termining factor in supplanting the bow 

 and arrow by the bola among these Ind- 

 ians, but the introduction of that useful 

 animal produced other most decided 

 changes in the life and habits of the 

 Tehuelches. Prior to the introduction of 

 the horse they were dependent upon the 

 bow and arrow not only for securing their 

 food and clothing, but also for protecting 

 themselves from the more numerous and 

 warlike Indians who inhabited the coun- 

 try to the north, and with whom they 

 were constantly at war. Greatly out- 

 numbered by a deadly enemy and de- 

 prived of any rapid means of escape if 

 attacked by a superior force, their favorite 

 camping places were then chosen with ref- 

 erence to concealment and defence, quite 

 as much as, or even more than, for their 

 convenience to natural food supplies. In 

 those pre-equine days, if I may use the 

 term, the Tehuelche was wont to select 

 for his encampment a secluded place in 

 the bottom of some deep basalt canon, 

 adjacent to a stream or small spring, or 

 if living on one of the larger rivers, the 

 encampment would be situated not in a 

 conspicuous place in the bottom of the 

 valley, convenient to an abundance of 

 grass and water, as at present, but would 

 be hidden away in some bend of the 

 stream or placed high up among the 

 debris of basaltic rocks that encumber 

 the slopes of most of the more important 

 streams of the Patagonian plains. In 

 such positions their low, box-like toldos, 

 made of guanaco skins of a dull brown 

 color, would not be easily detected. 



Many such old camping places may 

 now be seen, strewn with pieces of broken 



pottery, worn out and discarded stone 

 scrapers, stone chippings, arrow points, 

 drills, mortars, etc. A site of one of these 

 old-time Indian villages I examined very 

 carefully. The bottom of the canon 

 bears unmistakable evidence of having 

 been long used as a favorite camp- 

 ing ground of the Tehuelches. The 

 soil over a considerable area is literally 

 filled and covered with stone chippings, 

 scrapers, broken pottery, broken and 

 charred fragments of bones of mammals, 

 birds and fishes, the latter taken from the 

 stream which still flows between the vil- 

 lage site and the high bluff beyond. 



At this place I picked up about two 

 hundred arrow points and drills, most of 

 them imperfect, but did not find a single 

 bola. Is it not possible that the introduc- 

 tion of the horse brought about the aboli- 

 tion of the bow and arrow and the adop- 

 tion of the bola as a weapon of offence 

 and defence? The bola, considering the 

 limit of its effective range, and the time 

 necessarily consumed in attaining a suffi- 

 cient impetus before discharging it, cer- 

 tainly does not appear to be especially 

 well adapted for the capture, by a man on 

 foot, of animals possessed of such speed 

 and endurance as are the guanaca and 

 rhea. Whether the bola was in use among 

 these Indians prior to the advent of the 

 horse, can perhaps never be definitely de- 

 termined, but there can be little doubt that 

 as an implement for the capture of game, 

 it came into far more general use after the 

 introduction of the horse, when it began 

 gradually to displace the bow and arrow, 

 finally resulting in the total disappearance 

 of the latter weapon. Throughout my 

 travels in Patagonia I was struck by the 

 almost total absence of bola stones about 

 the old village sites, where arrow points 

 were as a rule found in unusual abun- 

 dance. The place just referred to was 

 evidently long occupied as a favorite en- 

 campment. That it has been long aban- 

 doned is evident from the fact that 

 over considerable areas implement-bear- 

 ing strata are buried beneath several feet" 



