414 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



The rATAO()MAX.s. 



The Teliuel-che prol)ably descend from the " PaUigouians " met by Magelhm 

 and described by Pigafetta. They are still the most numerous of these groups, 

 and they have best preserved their cohesion as a distinct nation. The term 

 Patarjones, " Big Feet," is a misnomer, for they have in fact rather small feet 

 (averao-ing less than 11 inches) compared to their colossal stature of about 6 feet 

 4 inches. In very cold weather they often wear over their boots a kind of gaiter 

 made of gaanaco skin, and this may perhaps have given the feet a dispropor- 

 tionately large appearance, though Pigafetta's words are : " The guanaco skin 

 gives their feet the appearance of bears' claws." As to the giants " ten or twelve 

 feet high " reported by Byron, Sarmiento and others, they were probably not taller 

 than the present Patagonians, who, however, are undoubtedly the tallest race in 

 the world. 



At Carmen de Patagones, where the Tehuel-che are already crossed with the 

 Pampas Indians, and consequently fall below the average stature of the race, 

 d'Orbigny found that the men had a mean height of 5 feet 9 or 10 inches. Since 

 that time nearly all explorers, who have traversed the country or even merely 

 visited the coast-lands, have also taken regular measurements of the stature of the 

 aborigines. A comparative table of these measurements shows that the full-blood 

 natives of the interior are the tallest, averaging about 6 feet 3 or 4 inches in the 

 Upper Rio Chico Valley. The women also are very tall, and the guanaco skin, 

 which constitutes their ordinary costume, contributes to give them a still more 

 majestic appearance. 



The Tehuel-che are also noted for their broad shoulders, fine muscular develo[> 

 ment, and stately bearing. The eyes are small, the nose short, the face round, 

 with a somewhat pleading expression. The Tehuel-che language is very harsh, 

 guttural, and difficult to express with European letters, as shown by the extra- 

 ordinary discrepancies in the spelling of words collected by different travellers. 

 It also changes rapidly owing to the custom of avoiding sounds that might recall 

 the name of any departed friend, such sounds having to be replaced by fresh 

 expressions. The three dialects — Tehuel-che, Araucanian and Pampean — differ 

 so greatly that the kindred peoples were unable to converse together. 



Nevertheless they possess a simple and very complete decimal system of 

 numeration, which is absolutel}'^ identical in all three dialects. This feature might 

 at first sight seem to connect the Patagonian speech with that of the Peruvian 

 linguistic family. But it could never establish any fundamental relationship, 

 and, taken by itself, would point at most to the civilising influence formerly 

 exercised by the Quichea nation far beyond the actual political frontiers of the 

 Peruvian empire. The Patagonians themselves have no historic traditions, and 

 their oral records go no farther back than the period when they came into contact 

 with the European settlers. They cannot even imagine a time when their 

 ancestors lived without a knowledge of the horse, an animal which now appears 

 so necessary to their very existence. 



