A R M O U II ARMS. 



147 



tlieir thickest mantles : the two outer ones have no liair, but 

 are gaily painted : all three are worn like ponchos. On their 

 heads they then wear conical caps, made of hide ; and sur- 

 mounted by a tuft of ostrich feathers. Another kind of armour, 

 worn by those who can get it, is a broad-brimmed hat, or helmet, 

 made of a doubled bulFs hide : and a tunic, or frock, with a 

 high collar, and short sleeves, made of several hides sewed toge- 

 ther ; sometimes of anta skins, but always of the thickest and 

 most solid they can procure. It is very heavy, strong enough 

 to resist arrows or lances, and to deaden the blow of a stone 

 ball (bola perdida) ; but it will not turn the bullet fired from 

 a musket. Some say that it will do so, but that which I saw 

 had been pierced through, in the thickest part, by the musket- 

 ball which killed the wearer. When obliged to fight on foot, 

 they use a shield made of hides sewed together (clypeus sep- 

 templex). 



Their arms are balls (bolas), lances, bows and arrows, clubs, 

 and swords when they can get them. But in hasty, unfore- 

 seen skirmishes, they engage in as light order as the more 

 northern Indians, without head-cover or mantle, stripped to 

 their spurs, and armed only with lances and balls ; which latter 

 they are never without. 



The balls, bowls, or bolas, called by themselves ' somai,"* are 

 two or three round stones, lumps of earth hardened, iron or 

 copper ore, or lead. If made of earth or clay, the material is 

 enclosed in small bags of green (fresh) hide, which, placed in the 

 sun, contract so much, that they become like stones in hardness ; 

 but these clay balls are not used by the Patagonians so much 

 as by the Pampa Indians, in whose country stones or metals 

 are so scarce that there probably the last-mentioned balls were 

 invented. Two balls, connected by a thong of hide, two, three, 

 or four yards in length, are called ' somai.** Three such balls, 

 connected by thongs, equal to one another in length, with their 

 inner ends united, are called ' achico.' Taking one ball in the 

 right hand, the other two are whirled around several times, 

 and the whole then thrown at the object to be entangled. 

 There are also balls of less weight and size, made of marble, 



L 2 



