XII 
INDIAN RELIC 
285 
gladly accepted of by them ; for the condition of the labouring 
agriculturists is much worse. Their wages are lower, and they 
live almost exclusively on beans. This poverty must be 
chiefly owing to the feudal-like system on which the land is 
tilled : the landowner gives a small plot of ground to the 
labourer, for building on and cultivating, and in return has his 
services (or those of a proxy) for every day of his life, without 
any wages. Until a father has a grown-up son, who can by 
his labour pay the rent, there is no one, except on occasional 
days, to take care of his own patch of ground. Hence extreme 
poverty is very common among the labouring classes in this 
country. 
There are some old Indian ruins in this neighbourhood, 
and I was shown one of the perforated stones, which Molina 
mentions as being found in many places in considerable numbers. 
They are of a circular flattened form, from five to six inches in 
diameter, with a hole passing quite through the centre. It has 
generally been supposed that they were used as heads to clubs, 
although theif form does not appear at all well adapted for that 
purpose. Burchell 1 states that some of the tribes in Southern 
Africa dig up roots, by the aid of a stick pointed at one end, 
the force and weight of which is increased by a round stone 
with a hole in it, into which the other end is firmly wedged. 
It appears probable that the Indians of Chile formerly used 
some such rude agricultural instrument. 
One day, a German collector in natural history, of the 
name of Renous, called, and nearly at the same time an old 
Spanish lawyer. I was amused at being told the conversation 
which took place between them. Renous speaks Spanish so 
well that the old lawyer mistook him for a Chilian. Renous, 
alluding to me, asked him what he thought of the King of Eng¬ 
land sending out a collector to their country, to pick up lizards 
and beetles, and to break stones ? The old gentleman thought 
seriously for some time, and then said, “ It is not well ,—hay 
nn gato encerrado aqui (there is a cat shut up here). No man 
is so rich as to send out people to pick up such rubbish. I do 
not like it: if one of us were to go and do such things in Eng¬ 
land, do not you think the King of England would very soon 
send us out of his country ? ” And this old gentleman, from 
1 Burchell’s Travels , vol. ii. p. 45. 
