423 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



current, they take them for evil spirits, and address them with a loud voice. If 

 by chance the trees are swept by less rapidly or are driven round in a whirl- 

 pool, they believe that this takes place for the purpose of hearing them. They 

 then make them liberal promises, which they faithfully keep. They cast their 

 weapons, their ornaments, sometimes even their horses with bound feet, into 

 the water, fully persuaded that by this sacrifice they have averted the misfor- 

 tunes that otherwise would have befallen them. Like many other savage na- 

 tions, they believe in a future paradise, where they expect to find again all that 

 they prized on earth. For this i-eason they immolate over the graves of their 

 friends all tfie animals that belonged to them, and inter with them all they pos- 

 sessed. 



The astronomical knowledge of the Patagonians is surprising in a people 

 ranking so low in the scale of civilization. Continually migrating over their arid 

 land, they soon felt the necessity of directing their movements during the day 

 by the position of the sun, during the night by the stars ; and thus they gradu- 

 ally learned to observe the march of the constellations, and to note the times of 

 their appearance and disappearance, giving them names, so as to be able to com- 

 municate their observations to each other. Their lively fancy traces in the 

 starry firmament the picture of the Indian's hunting expedition. The Milky 

 Way is the path on which lu^ follows the ostrich ; the " Three Kings " are the 

 bolas, or balls, with which he strikes the bird whose feet form the Southern 

 Cross ; and the Magellanic clouds are heaps of its feathers that have been col- 

 lected by its pursuer. 



When the Patagonians speak of the direction they intend to follow, from 

 north to south or from east to west, they always indicate the constellations ; so 

 that in these South American plains, as m those of Chaldea, a similar necessity 

 has led man to lay the first foundations of astronomical knowledge. 



The Patagonians are divided into a number of small migratory tribes, each 

 consisting of, at the utmost, thirty or forty families. As they live exclusively 

 by the chase, it is evident that a few days would suffice to destroy or to drive 

 away the game of a great extent of territory were they to assemble in larger 

 numbers. Not to perish of want, they are thus compelled to wander from 

 place to place in small companies, and to carry along with them their leathern 

 toldos, or tents. The toldo reposes on a frame of poles stuck into the earth, and 

 is scarcely higher than six feet in its centre, so that one can hardly imagine how 

 a family of tall Patagonians can live in so small a space. The door is invaria- 

 bly to the east, so that early in the morning the chief of the family may sprinkle 

 before it a few^ drops of water as an offering to the rising sun, for were this sac- 

 rifice to be neglected, the evil spirits would infallibly wreak their vengeance 

 upon the inmates of the tent. Horse-hides, or guanaco skins coarsely sewn to- 

 gether, cover the frame, and afford but a scanty protection against the rain and 

 the much more frequent wind. At the top, as in the Laplander's hut, an open- 

 ing is left to let out the smoke. The hearth is in the middle, and close by lie 

 some earthen vases, and large volute shells which serve as drinking-horns. The 

 inmates lie on skins, or sit in a corner cross-legged, after the Oriential fashion. 

 The excessive filth of these wretched tenements makes their poverty appear still 



