220 



CHARLES DARWIN 



four natives who were present advanced to receive us, and 

 began to shout most vehemently, wishing to direct us where 

 to land. When we were on shore the party looked rather 

 alarmed, but continued talking and making gestures with 

 great rapidity. It was without exception the most curious 

 and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have 

 believed how wide was the difference between savage and 

 civilized man : it is greater than between a wild and domesti- 

 cated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power 

 of improvement. The chief spokesman was old, and 

 appeared to be the head of the family ; the three others were 

 powerful young men, about six feet high. The women and 

 children had been sent away. These Fuegians are a very 

 different race from the stunted, miserable wretches farther 

 westward ; and they seem closely allied to the famous Pata- 

 gonians of the Strait of Magellan. Their only garment con- 

 sists of a mantle made of guanaco skin, with the wool out- 

 side : this they wear just thrown over their shoulders, leaving 

 their persons as often exposed as covered. Their skin is of 

 a dirty coppery-red colour. 



The old man had a fillet of white feathers tied round his 

 head, which partly confined his black, coarse, and entangled 

 hair. His face was crossed by two broad transverse bars; 

 one, painted bright red, reached from ear to ear and included 

 the upper lip; the other, white like chalk, extended above 

 and parallel to the first, so that even his eyelids were thus 

 coloured. The other two men were ornamented by streaks 

 of black powder, made of charcoal. The party altogether 

 closely resembled the devils which come on the stage in plays 

 like Der Freischutz. 



Their very attitudes were abject, and the expression of 

 \ their countenances distrustful, surprised, and startled. After 

 we had presented them with some scarlet cloth, which they 

 immediately tied round their necks, they became good friends. 

 This was shown by the old man patting our breasts, 

 and making a chuckling kind of noise, as people do when 

 feeding chickens. I walked with the old man, and this dem- 

 onstration of friendship was repeated several times; it was 

 concluded by three hard slaps, which were given me on the 

 breast and back at the same time. He then bared his bosom 



