IDEAS OF llELIGTON. 



179 



with these natives. It became a saying among us, that such 

 a person was as troublesome as a Fuegian doctor. 



In each family the word of an old man is accepted as law 

 by the young people ; they never dispute his authority. War- 

 fare, though nearly continual, is so desultory, and on so small 

 a scale among them, that the restraint and direction of their 

 elders, advised as they are by the doctors, is sufficient. 



Ideas of a spiritual existence — of beneficent and evil powers 

 — they certainly have ; but I never witnessed or heard of any act 

 of a decidedly religious nature, neither could I satisfy myself 

 of their having any idea of the immortality of the soul. The 

 fact of their believing that the evil spirit torments them in this 

 world, if they do wrong, by storms, hail, snow, &c., is one rea- 

 son why I am inclined to think that they have no thought of a 

 future retribution. The only act I have heard of which could 

 be supposed devotional, is the following. When Matthews 

 was left alone with them for several days, he sometimes heard 

 a great howling, or lamentation, about sun-rise in the morn- 

 ing ; and upon asking Jemmy Button what occasioned this 

 outcry, he could obtain no satisfactory answer ; the boy only 

 saying, " people very sad, cry very much." Upon one occa- 

 sion, when some canoes were alongside the Beagle, at a 

 subsequent visit to the Beagle Channel (in 1834), a sudden 

 howl from one of the Fuegians aroused several others who 

 were near, and at the opposite side of the vessel, when a ge- 

 neral howl of lamentation took place, which was ended by a 

 low growling noise. By this, as well as by pulling their hair, 

 and beating their breasts, while tears streamed down their 

 faces, they evinced their sorrow for the fate of some friends who 

 had perished, some days before the Beagle's arrival, by the 

 upsetting of a loaded canoe.* There was no regular weeping, 

 nor any thing at all like the downright cry of a civilized being ; 

 it was a noise which seemed to be peculiar to a savage. This 

 howling was mostly among the men, only one young woman 

 was similarly affected. Now whether the noises heard by 



* The bottom of a Fuegian canoe is full of mud, or clay, for the fire- 

 place. 



