WIXTKR VOYAnK TH IK) rail STRAITS OF MAG ELLAS 13-1 



often paint themselves in a iiiileon.s manner ami then j.'rea.se themselves 

 all over. They approve the early fasiiinns ((ianlen of Kden, and so on), 

 with occasionally a mantle of skin thrown over their Hhonlders. They 

 worship a god of <;ood and a jiod of evil, and all that happens is consid- 

 ered as directly sent by one or the other of these deities. They do not 

 believe in the final salvation of the wicked. They are ave!*se to Chris- 

 tianity, nncontrollable in a stateof anjjer, and passionately fond of stront; 

 drink. Their favorite food is horse-Hesh ami the blood of animals, an<l 

 though they have cooking utensils they i)refer to eat their meat raw. 

 The}' subsist by hunting the guanaco, an animal never seen in Tatagonia 

 to the westward of Cape Froward, but very numerous on the plains of 

 Eastern Patagonia. These people live either in camp or on horseback 

 and do not seem to be fishermen— at least they are not known to have 

 canoes. Their bows and arrows betoken that they live by hunting, as 

 their arrow-heads are both poisoned and unpoisoned, and it is not at all 

 likely they would waste the latter on their enemies. Even so late as 1871 

 it was said they possessed few firearms. They are a bold, warlike, and 

 fearless race; jiossessing certain magnanimous traits, and in this they difler 

 widely from the natives of the soutlu>ru and western shores of Magellan 

 straits." 



The same explorer saj^s of tlie Fuegians: 



"They are an uglv. savage race, who in hard times become cannibals, 

 and their most si^lendid feasts are characterized liy dirt, filth, and misery. 

 Christianity seems to have had no power among them." 



Every one who has voyaged in these waters regards the Fuegians 

 as treacherous and dangerous. They are short in stature and of 

 a dirty copper-cohjr, their only clothing, even in the coldest 

 weather, being a sealskin or deerskin worn with the hair outward, 

 and this solitary garment, vermin included, they will readily 

 exchange for a little biscuit or tobacco. Darwin admits their 

 cannibalism, which lie excuses on the plea of necessity. When 

 pressed by hunger they kill first their old women and then their 

 dogs, because, said one of them, "Doggy, he catch otter; old 

 woman, slie no catchee otter." But usually they live by fishing 

 and what they can gather from the rocks, as, for instance, snails 

 and mussels, but they will eagerly devour putrid seal's Hesh and 

 the most disgusting offal. 



They live in huts constructed in a very primitive way of the 

 branches of trees, and have no articles of traffic except their 

 weapons and implements, wincii are .sometimes bougiit as curi- 

 osities. They are thievish, cunning, and greedy, and great cau- 

 tion is requisite in dealing with them. Attempts have been 

 made l)y English missionaries to les.sen their barl)arism, but 

 with no success, a f:vt whi.h is the more singular, as even the 



