702 TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACO. 



The Bolivian Indians were subdued only in 1843. Each 

 village or toldera of these tribes is governed by a cacique, 

 generally possessing hereditary rank ; though, as in other cases, 

 much depends upon his physical powers and wealth. A num- 

 ber of wild tribes still roam over the country between the 

 western Argentine states and the Andes. There they live 

 free and independent, though barbarous. When they venture 

 into the neighbourhood of large towns, they soon degenerate 

 into thieves and drunkards. Here they come to carry on a 

 trade in furs and panther skins, or to collect meat at the 

 saladeros, which they dry and cany off with them. They 

 make money by selling Indian ornaments, and foraging for the 

 settlers' cattle ; or by thieving, which they look upon as an 

 orthodox mode of gaining a livelihood. 



TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACO. 



Several tribes inhabited the Gran Chaco. The principal 

 one — the least sunk in barbarism — were the Guanas. They 

 lived in towns arranged in some symmetrical order, composed of 

 palm-trees. Each house formed an enclosed square composed 

 of posts and arches. To these were fixed horizontal beams, the 

 whole covered with mud and straw. There was but one door, 

 and the structure was sufficiently large to contain a dozen 

 families. They had bed-places on square frames, covered over 

 with boards and straw and skins, while their houses were kept 

 scrupulously clean. 



They were noted for their hospitality, and subsisted chiefly 

 by agriculture. They cut off the hair in the middle of the 

 forehead ; some shaved sometimes the front half of the head, 

 and others half-moons over the ears. Though the marriage 

 ceremony was simple in the extreme, a contract as to various 



