182 



MAKllIAGE. 



of York^ Jemmy, and Fuegia to England, before any of Mr. 

 Low's account is given ; ^because, as his intercourse was chiefly 

 with the Chonos tribe, and was quite unconnected with the 

 Beagle's visit, it will be more satisfactory to the reader to be 

 enabled to compare accounts from different sources, which in 

 some points are so strikingly similar, that their agreement givcg 

 great weight to the whole. 



The Fuegians marry young. As soon as a youth is able to 

 maintain a wife, by his exertions in fishing or bird-catching, 

 he obtains the consent of her relations, and does some piece of 

 work, such as helping to make a canoe, or prepare seal-skins, 

 &c. for her parents. Having built or stolen a canoe for himself, 

 he watches for an opportunity, and carries off his bride. If 

 she is unwilling, she hides herself in the woods until her ad- 

 mirer is heartily tired of looking for her, and gives up the pur- 

 suit; but this seldom happens. Although this is undoubt- 

 edly the custom among many of them, we had some reason to 

 think there were parties who lived in a promiscuous manner — a 

 few women being with many men. It is, however, hardly fair to 

 j udge from what we saw during our short visit, when the ordi- 

 nary habits of their life were certainly much altered. We 

 observed, while at Woolly a, a disproportionately small num- 

 ber of females ; but it ought to be remembered, that the people 

 whom we then saw came to look at us from a distance, and 

 that the greater part of their women and children were pro- 

 bably left in security at various places, as were the women and 

 children of those who stole our boat in the former voyage 

 (vol. i. p. 394) whom we found in a retired nook, far out of 

 ordinary observation. 



Jemmy Button often talked of his father, mother, brothers, 

 and sisters, also of uncles'^" and aunts, after he knew enough 

 of our language to understand distinctly the relationship. Now 

 this could not have been the case had not his father and mother 

 lived together permanently as man and wife, according to the 

 clear account which he himself always gave of their custom in 

 this respect. 



* It was an uncle who gave him to me for some buttons. 



