MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 97 



If an Indian dies the place becomes accursed. The camp is 

 immediately removed to a fresh locality. When the dead man or 

 woman is buried, certain ceremonies are observed about the grave, 

 evidently with a view to enabling the departed to start in another 

 life with an adequate outfit. Horses and dogs are slaughtered, 

 so that he may have the means to pursue and kill the guanaco in 

 the land of ghosts. Food and dead game are also placed in the 

 grave to supply his needs at the outset of the new existence. 

 Should the dead happen to be a child or a person of tender years, 

 fillies and colts are slaughtered at the burial. 



In former times, and in fact until quite recent years, it used to 

 be the custorri to place beside the corpse the silver-mounted horse- 

 gear of the dead man, and to close the grave upon it. In a land 

 where life depends not infrequently upon the strength of your raw- 

 hide head-stall, for instance, the value of sound gear is properly 

 appreciated ; therefore this particular precaution for the welfare of 

 the dead shows a very practical solicitude on the part of the sur- 

 vivors. To-day the Tehuelches still bury these possessions in the 

 grave, but the custom is only continued with a reservation. In- 

 stead of leaving the valuable gear under the earth for all time, 

 they now at the end of a twelvemonth dig it up again. How 

 they reconcile this economical arrangement with the comfort of 

 their lost friend I do not know, but it may be suggested that they 

 imagine the inhabitant of another world has had full time in the 

 course of a year to make suitable new gear for himself. 



The religion of the Indians is interesting. It consists, of 

 course, in the old simple beliefs in good spirits and devils, but 

 chiefly devils, which, with variations dependent on climate and 

 physical environment, represent all over the world the spiritual 

 creeds of uncivilised races. The dominant Spirit of Evil, as feared 

 by the Tehuelches, is called the Gualicho. And he abides as an 

 ever-present terror behind their strange, free, and superstitious 

 lives. They spend no small portion of their time in either fleeing 

 from his wrath or in propitiating it. You may wake in the dawn 

 to see a band of Indians suddenly rise and leap upon their horses, 

 and gallop away across the pampa, howling and gesticulating. 

 They are merely scaring the Gualicho away from their tents back 



