Expedition to Tucuman and Salta. 427 
to bring the Indians to Campo Santo. He, the capataz, finds 
all the food on the road, and returns with them when the 
work is finished ; they come in April, and leave in September 
or October. Whilst here they live in huts made of the sugar- 
cane after the sweet juice has been extracted, built in the 
shape of ants’ nests. They show considerable skill in build- 
ing these huts, but live like pigs inside. They form a small 
colony of about 300 persons, all told, men, women, and chil- 
dren, close to the house, are great thieves, and have to be 
carefully watched. ‘They live in the Chaco a perfectly nomad 
life, like the Patagonian Indians, spending most of their time 
on the shores of the Vermejo. Having no horses, they travel 
on foot, and cover immense distances, the women carrying all 
the goods of each family. Their weapons are bows and 
arrows, made of extremely hard wood, and spears. With 
these they kill small animals and birds, which, with the 
natural fruit, form their food. They are extremely super- 
stitious, and appear lower in the scale than Patagonian 
Indians. They average about 5 feet 6 inches im height, and 
are well formed, face flat, hair black and long, complexion 
mahogany, head round. They wear nothmg but a puncho 
here, and in the Chaco clothe themselves in animal skins. 
They have no idea of a God, but have great fear of an evil 
spirit, and are intensely superstitious. They have no kind 
of writing, and make no hieroglyphics whatever. Sr. Cornejo 
has offered to give them ground to cultivate and cows for 
breeding ; but they prefer their nomad life in the Chaco to the 
more civilized habit. 
The chirumoya is a fruit very little known, introduced from 
Peru by the ancestors of Sr. Cornejo to this country. It is 
a tree about fifteen feet high, but the branches spread to some 
distance. ‘The fruit is about the size of a large orange, with 
a smooth green skin, of an irregular but roundishform. The 
inside is a dull whitish substance, the seeds flat and black; 
all the interior, with the exception of the seeds, is eaten, and 
it has a delicious sweet and agrecable taste. 
Buteo erythronotus, one shot, pretty common in the more 
open land. 
