MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 103 



At one time, while we were travelling across the pampas and 

 had camped for the night, an Indian rode in upon us in the twilight. 

 The Indian did not talk Spanish, nor could we speak Tehuelchian. 

 In silence he joined us at our evening meal and stopped after- 

 wards to smoke a pipe of tobacco, then he got to horse and rode 

 away. 



The next morning our horses were missing; they had evidently 

 strayed during the night. I went out to look for them, and after a 

 time saw them far away across the pampa advancing towards me 

 in a compact mob. A rider was driving them up. As soon as he 

 saw me, and I had recognised our guest of the preceding evening, 

 he sent forward the horses at a gallop in my direction, and, wheel- 

 ing round, was off and out of sight in a moment. He did not wait 

 to be thanked, and yet it was obvious, from the condition of the 

 horses, that he must have found them a long way off and driven 

 them for a considerable distance. It is in courtesies of this kind 

 that the silent peoples excel. 



I am no wild admirer of the noble savage. He is, generally 

 speaking, a highly objectionable person. But to see a race — so 

 kindly, picturesque, and gifted with fine qualities of body and 

 mind — such as the Tehuelches, absolutely at hand-grips with 

 extinction, seems to me one of the saddest results of the grow- 

 ing domination of the white man and his methods of civilisation. 



