5H 



SCIENCE. 



THE TERRA DEL FUEGIANS AT THE GAR- 

 DEN OF ACCLIMATION. 



The whole world has heard of the savages, who are at 

 present exhibited at the Zoological Garden of Acclima- 

 tion ot Bois de Boulogne ; many have gone to see them, 

 and have been well repaid, for they present an interesting 

 spectacle to the observer. They are seen lying or squat- 

 ting about the fire kindled under the trees of the large 

 lawn, motionless for whole hours at a time, gazing with 

 vacant eye at the astonished crowd which presses 

 against the railings as though they contained remarkable 

 animals. Do they think? We cannot tell this. Do they 

 speak ? Yes, they do speak, if we can call the gutteral 

 sounds, the duckings which at long intervals, they ex- 

 change with each other, a language. They remain there, 

 indifferent, having no longer in operation the only cause 

 which can agitate them, hunger ; for they are fed. It is 

 a curious sight, but also a sad one. A man at this stage 

 of brutishness is not wholly an animal ; but he is no 

 longer a man. The Fuegians, for that is the name which 

 Captain Weddel gave them in 1822, and which has been 

 applied to them since that time, inhabit Terra del Fuego. 

 When we read in the works of travelers the description 

 of their country, we are no longer astonished at their pro- 

 found degradation. 



Terra del Fuego is a mountainous archipelago, sepa- 

 rated from Patagonia by the straits of Magellan, and 

 formed of enormous masses of steep rocks, which leave 

 only the coast bordering upon the straits, upon which 

 man can settle. In the parts where the rock is not abso- 

 lutely bare, a thick and impenetrable forest of beeches 

 covers the side of the mountain, and descends as far as 

 the sea. No animal, with the exception of some foxes 

 and birds, inhabits this country. The climate here is 

 horrible. The mean temperature of summer, according 

 .to King and Darwin, is io°C, and that of winter o.°6C. 

 Mist is perpetual here, and tempests unceasing. Scarcely 

 a day passes without the fall of rain, and even of snow. 

 The habitable portion is only on the rocks of the shore. 

 In the whole country, but a few acres of plain can be 

 found. 



For a long time these Fuegians have been known, and 

 many descriptions of them have been given. Sebold, of 

 Weert, who accompanied Simon, of Cord, made giants 

 of them, eleven to twelve feet high. We see from the 

 samples which we have under our eyes, that there is a 

 certain exaggeration in that statement. We borrow from 

 Orbigny the description which he gives of them ; in our 

 opinion, there is nothing to be changed in it, it is abso- 

 lutely applicable to our savages. 



Their head, says Orbigny, is tolerably large, their face 

 is rounded ; they have a short nose, a little broadened, 

 open nostrils, small eyes, black and horizontal ; a large 

 mouth, thick lips, white teeth, well arranged; small ears, 

 and the cheek bones a little prominent. They have but 

 little beard, and this they pluck out. Their hair, like 

 that of all the Americans, is black, long, and dull. Their 

 body is massive, their chest large, and their bow-legs are 

 relatively rather short. The women present the same 

 characteristics as the men, and they will return with diffi- 

 culty to the proportions exacted by European aesthetics. 

 Their mean height is from 1.56 m., to 1.68 m. 



Their language, as we have before stated, is guttural, 

 and it has been compared by Cook to the utterance of a 

 man who is gargling. This comparison expresses well 

 the impression that is felt on hearing them. 



The great naturalist, Charles Darwin, was able, 

 during the many months which he passed in the country 

 which they inhabit, to observe their habits, and he has 

 given us a picture which, in order to be just, is not very 

 attractive : it is from him that we borrow the particulars 

 which follow. " Forced continually to move from one 

 region to another, according as the resources of their set- 

 tlement are exhausted, the Fuegians have no fixed abode. 



They construct a sort of hut by planting several branches 

 in the ground and covering them with other branches in- 

 tertwined on the side where the wind blows. Their dress 

 consists of a piece of skin, which they carry over their 

 shoulders, and which they pass from one shoulder to the 

 other, according to the direction of the wind. It was 

 necessary for ceremony to persuade the Fuegians at the 

 Garden of Acclimation to put on a pair of drawers. Often 

 they are completely nude. Their nourishment con- 

 sists chiefly of shell-fish, and now and then of the 

 rotten flesh of a seal or of a whale. At low tide, 

 which may be in winter or in summer, in the night or in 

 the day, they must get up to seek the shell-fish on the 

 rocks ; the women dive to obtain the eggs from the sea 

 or remain patiently seated in their boats for several hours 

 until they have caught several small fish with lines with- 

 out hooks. If they happen to kill a seal, or if they 

 happen to discover the half-rotten carcass of a whale, it 

 is the signal for an immense feast. They then gorge 

 themselves with the. horrible food, and, to complete the 

 feast, they eat several berries or several mushrooms which 

 have no taste." 



When the different tribes go to war they become can- 

 nibals. Besides, when in winter they are strongly pressed 

 by hunger, they eat the old women before they do the 

 dogs, because, they say, the latter capture otters, and 

 the old women cannot. In this regard, it is to be re- 

 gretted that they did not bring some of their dogs with 

 them. The only domestic animals of these savages ought 

 certainly to present a precious subject of observation. 



Do these savages believe in another life, have they any 

 rudimentary religion whatever ? We are not able to pro- 

 nounce on this, for it is impossible to draw 'any explana- 

 tion from the savages themselves; they are incapable of 

 comprehending an alternative, and we can never surely 

 know if we understand them ourselves. All that we can 

 say is, that each tribe or family possesses a magician 

 whose functions have not yet been exactly defined by 

 travelers, and that the Fuegians generally bury their dead. 



It has been pretended that the family tie does not exist 

 among them. Yet, we see in the account of Darwin that 

 York Minster, one of the Fuegians brought back by 

 Captain Fitz-Roy to his country, took as his wife the 

 young girl who had accompanied him to Europe, and 

 that the other returned Fuegian also had his wife when 

 the expedition returned to the place inhabited by the tribe 

 with which he had been left. Is not this a proof of the 

 existence of a family relation, rudimentary if you wish, yet 

 a real home among these savages. 



As regards property, it is an unknown thing among 

 them. Apart from arms and utensils, no Fuegian pos- 

 sesses anything of his own. If he kills a seal, it is shared 

 among all the members of the tribe. If a present is made 

 to one of them, he breaks it and divides the pieces. It is 

 communism in all its beauty. 



The different tribes have neither government nor chief. 

 Each of them is, however, surrounded by other hostile 

 tribes speaking different dialects. They are separated, 

 the one from the other, by a neutral territory which re- 

 mains absolutely deserted. The perpetual wars which 

 these tribes have, seem to have for a cause the difficulty of 

 obtaining food. The land is so steep that they cannot 

 change their abode except by water; and necessity has 

 forced them to become navigators and to build boats. 

 Those who inhabit the shores of the Straits of Magellan 

 pass, from time to time, into Patagonia to chase the 

 guanacos in order to renew their clothes and their provi- 

 sions. But even there they encounter enemies. The 

 Patagonians, from whom they are distinguished by race 

 and language, as well as by habits, pursue them with ar- 

 dor, and seek to reduce them to slavery. A Fuegian 

 slave is very highly estimated by the Patagonians, who 

 value him among themselves, according to the quality, up 

 to $200. 



When we consider the few resources which the archi 



