MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 89 



Drink to the uncivilised man is a danger against which he is pro- 

 vided with no defence, either social or moral. Having once tasted 



ARROWHEADS AND KNIFE, FOUND NEAR COLOHUAPI, CHUBUT. 



MR. E. M. SPROT) 



(NOW IN COLLECTION OF 



its fatal pleasures, he has no reason for forbidding himself an 

 indulgence his animal nature craves. 



Since the day on which the Spanish adventurers first sighted 

 the Patagonian coast, perhaps the one "event" in the history of 

 the Indians may truly be said to be the introduction of horses into 

 their land. Otherwise they seem to have altered little in their 

 way of life. Magellan says they came down to the ship clad and 

 shod in guanaco-skins ; they are clad and shod in guanaco-skins 

 to-day. Their tools and knives were sharp-edged flints ; I have 

 seen the Indians skin their quarry with precisely the same weapons. 



Bows and arrows were indeed in use among the tribes when 

 the Spaniards visited the coast ; these have now been superseded 

 by the boleadores, an innovation which in its present form came 

 into fashion after the Indians began to know the value of the 



