SOUTHERN ABORIGINES. 



135 



whom he saw. Ever restless and wandering, as were the 

 Tehuel-het, of which tribes that cacique was chief, might 

 not Byron have measured Cangapol ? * Who disbeheves that 

 the Roman Emperor, Maximinus, by birth a Thracian, was 

 more than eight feet in height ? yet who, in consequence^ 

 expects all Thracians to be giants ? At present, among two 

 or three hundred natives of Patagonia, scarcely half-a-dozen 

 men are seen whose height is under five feet nine or ten ; and 

 the women are tall in proportion. 



I have nowhere met an assemblage of men and women 

 whose average height and apparent bulk approached to that of 

 the Patagonians. Tall and athletic as are many of the natives 

 of Otaheite, and other islands in the Pacific Ocean, there are 

 also many among them who are slight, and of low stature. 

 The Patagonians seem high-shouldered— owing perhaps to 

 the habit of folding their arms in their mantles across the 

 chest, and thus increasing their apparent height and bulk, 

 as the mantles hang loosely, and almost touch the ground. 

 Until actually measured, I could not believe that they were not 

 much taller than was found to be the fact. 



But little hair shews itself on their faces or bodies. From 

 the former it is studiously removed by two shells, or some 

 kind of pincers. Although they do not augment the coarse- 

 ness of their features by piercing either nose or lips, they dis- 

 figure themselves not a little by red,-|- black,;!: or white§ paint, 

 with which they make grotesque ornaments, such as circles 

 around their eyes, or great daubs across their faces. Upon 

 particular occasions, all the upper part of their body, from the 

 waist upwards, is strangely decorated (or disfigured) by paint, 

 awkwardly laid on with very little design. On their feet and 

 legs are boots made out of the skins of horses' legs. Wooden 

 spurs, if they cannot get iron ; sets of balls (bolas), and a long 

 tapering lance of bamboo, pointed with iron, complete their 

 equipment. These lances are seldom seen near the Strait of 

 Magalhaens, but the natives are not always without them. 



The women are dressed and booted like the men, with the 

 * Byron's voyage, 1765.— Falkner, 1740-80. 



t Ochre. t Charcoal and oil. § Felspathic earth and oil. 



