INHABITANTS OF PAEAGUAT. 307 



predatory expeditions was an equal, whose strength, skill or energy inspired con- 

 hdence, but wlio after the battle enjoyed no further privilege. They hunted the 

 jaguar and eat its flesh in order to assimilate its strength, and for analogous 

 reasons despised the flesh of peaceful animals. They were firm believers in metem- 

 psychosis, supposing that cowards and bad people passed into the bodies of 

 noxious reptiles, while they themselves became the associates of the teal who 

 hovered in flocks above the lagoons. Towards the middle of the eighteenth 

 century they became Christians, but since then they have ceased to exist as a 

 separate nation, being either merged in the surrounding populations, or swept 

 H way by epidemics. 



The Tobas, old allies and perhaps kinsmen of the Abipons, not only still 

 survive but even maintain their independence as a powerful and aggressive 

 nation. They have often attacked the Paraguayan and Argentine settlements in 

 Chaco, and the disastrous end of more than one expedition to the Pilcomayo 

 valley shows how dangerous it is to enter their territory. They roam both sides 

 of that river far to the north and south, and they have been met in the whole 

 region from the banks of the Paraguay westwards to the foot of the Andes. 

 They are a tall race, from 5 feet 6 inches to 6 feet high, with thick skin *' like 

 an ox-hide," so that they can walk even on thorny ground without sandals. 

 From the marshy nature of the land they have acquired the curious habit of 

 always, even on dry ground, raising the foot at every step vertically to the 

 level of the knee. In the central regions they still insert wooden discs in the 

 ear-lobe, whence the term Oregudos and Orejoiies, "big-eared," applied to them 

 as well as to others in Amazonia by the Spaniards. The women tattoo them- 

 selves with straight and circular lines in blue and red, and apparently also 

 dye the hair, which pusses from the normal black to a chestnut, and even a 

 yellow shade. 



The Tobas cultivate no land, lead the nomad life of hunters and fishers, are 

 much given to drunken orgies, and from childhood upwards are habituated to 

 scenes of bloodshed. Through filial pity the children often despatch their sick 

 parents, and after the battle the warriors bring the mangled remains of the slain 

 to their women, reserving the head and hair for themselves. 



When a woman dies mother and infant are buried together. On reaching 

 the ao-e of puberty, girls are secluded for a few days, and then entertained with 

 a great feast, accompanied by much singing, music and dancing. Amongst the 

 Tobas the marriage rite is extremely simple. The suitor accepted by the young 

 woman's father goes off to the hunt, kills some large game, and lays it at the 

 feet of bis betrothed, as a proof of his strength, courage, and power to support 

 a wife and family. Married folks sleep with their feet turned to the east, in 

 order that the sun may shine on their soles and teach them to walk in the 

 right path, for the day-god diffuses all virtue through his rays. The Tobas are 

 strict monogamists, the women being of an extremely jealous temperament and 

 admitting no partner in the domestic circle. At the least sign qf rivalry the 

 matter is settled by a duel, which often ends fatally. Stripped to the waist, the 



