INHABITANTS OF ARGENTINA. 



415 



165. — Indian Populations of 

 South Argentina. 



Scale 1 : 16,000,000. 



All the PatagouiaiiS have for several years lived in complete subjection to the 

 Argentine authorities. They even call themselves Christians ; but despite their 

 apparent physical strength they are often decimated by epidemics. Although 

 generally sober, they indulge in drunken orgies on all festive occasions, and these 

 degrading scenes sometimes last for 

 weeks together. At such times the Fie 



women carefully collect all dan- 

 gerous implements, knives, clubs, 

 lassos, and hide them away in some 

 remote gorge, where they take refuge 

 with the children till the bout is 

 over. 



For ihe mp.st part the Tehuel- 

 che Indians are dying out without 

 passing through the period of servi- 

 tude. These aborigines still jare- 

 serve their haughty spirit, freely 

 roaming their dreary solitudes from 

 north to south, from the foot of the 

 Andes to the shores of the Atlantic. 

 They wear their flowing locks bound 

 round the head with a broad band- 

 age, like that which is used to com- 

 press the skull to the required shape 

 in infancy. Like so many oiher 

 primitive peoples, they carefully 

 pluck out all hairs from the face, 

 and till recently emploj^ed for this 

 purpose small silver tweezers iden- 

 tical with those that have been 

 found in the old sepulchral mounds 

 of the Calchaqui Indians in the pro- 

 vince of Catamaroa.* But in their 

 present impoverished slate they 

 have generally to rest satisfied with 

 simple knives with which all sprout- 

 ing hairs are shaved off. 



Since their submission to the 

 Argentine Government, the Pata- 



gonians have been obliged to renounce all warlike expeditions. Consequently they 

 no longer go about armed with the national spear and cowhide buckler embellished 

 with metal ornaments. At present their only weapon is the hola i)erdida, "lost 



310 Miles. 



* Francisco P. Moreno, Viaje à la Patagonia Amtral. 



