410 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



The Matacos and Abipoxs. 



Associated wilh them on the sugar pUmtations are the Matacos, a branch of 

 the independent Mataguayos, who appear to be of Toba stock. They are smuUer, 

 more thick-set, and stronger, but also less skilful and enterprising than the 

 Chirio-uanos. The uncivilised branch have the curious custom of wearing, sus- 

 pended from the shoulders, a satchel in which are kept odds and ends of all sorts, 

 arrowheads, fish scales, hair, feathers, dry leaves, blood-stained rags, which make 

 up the "history" of the bearer, each object representing some event in his life, 

 and, therefore, carefully preserved as part of himself till his death. The Matacos, 

 who are estimated at about 14,000. practise the couvade. They are of shorter 

 stature than the Tobas, but more robust and strongly built, with thick neck, 

 well-developed muscles, stout limbs, broad, flat features, and high cheek-bones, 

 the upper jaw being deeply arched like a horseshoe. " The nose is broad, 

 straio-ht, not very prominent, and with wide nostrils, but it is not flattened. 

 Indeed, they are seriously afraid of having flat noses, so much so that they will 

 not eat mutton, which is supposed by them to cause flatness in that feature. This 

 is a device of their medicine-men and soothsayers, in order to prevent the 

 destruction of their few sheep and also the consequent loss of the wool, which they 

 weave and make use of in many ways. 



" The adults have black or blackish hair ; in the old it is sometimes, but rarely, 

 white, possibly because very few attain to old age. The chihlren up to ten or 

 twelve years have reddish hair ; a curious fact recalling the theory of De Salles, 

 according to which primitive man was red-haired. The hair is generally worn 

 long and unkempt, but during periods of mourning it is cut off for a year. The 

 skin of all these Indians varies in colour from copper to clay, while occasionally 

 some are spotted with black." * 



Like most of the other uncivilised tribes of Gnin Chaco, the Matacos are 

 unable to count beyond four, and even to accomplish this mental operation they 

 have recourse to the four fingers of the right hand, the thumb being held in the 

 left; beyond four everything is nforq, "many." Thus a noted Mataco chief had 

 some difficulty to explain to his interviewer, Pelleschi, that in his time he had 

 slain a large number of hostile Indians. After telling ofl" the first four he got 

 puzzled, and " sitting down cross-legged on the ground, he began making marks 

 on the earth with his finger, exclaiming, at each one toch, i.e., ' this,' raising his 

 head each time as well as his hand, and looking at me, added uitidf foe//, meaning 

 ' and this one too ' ; and so he went on until he reached about a score, always, 

 however, turning towards me that I might understand that, besides these, there 

 were always the four fingers, until at last I was almost tired out with ntocg, ntucq^ 

 ' many, many.' " f 



In Argentina the fierce and till recently powerful Abij^ons are now represented 

 only by a few half-caste families of Spanish speech in the Santa Fé district. The 

 kindred Mocovi, or Mbocovi, alternately their allies and deadly foes, still retain 



* Pelleschi, p. 33. t Pelleschi, p. 289. 



