Young Yahgan Fuegian GirlFIG.174.—Kamanakar Kipa;young Yahgan Fuegian girl;height,1 m. 40; ceph. ind., 79.7.(Phot. Cape Horn Scient. Mission.)
FIG.174.—Kamanakar Kipa;young Yahgan Fuegian girl;height,1 m. 40; ceph. ind., 79.7.(Phot. Cape Horn Scient. Mission.)
This plain is occupied by various tribes who have nothing in common but the nomadic and pastoral mode of life determined by the environment since the introduction of the horse. Of the ancient peoples who occupied these regions as well as Uruguay at the time of the conquest, there remain but thedébris, or descendants hybridised to the furthest extent possible.
TheCharruasand their congeners theMinuanesand theYaros, who fought so valiantly during the centuries of the Spanish domination, at first with their clubs and bows, then, becoming horsemen, with “bolas” and the lasso, were exterminated only in 1832. The four last representatives of the race were exhibitedas curiosities in Paris in 1830. TheCharruashad a very dark-coloured skin and were of somewhat high stature (1 m. 68), like their neighbours on the other side of the Rio de la Plata, theChanases, and especially theQuerandis, whose bands were decimated at the end of the sixteenth century, after their last attack on Buenos Ayres.[676]
Their hybrid descendants, calledTalhuets, were still fairly numerous in 1860 between Buenos Ayres and Rio Negro. TheAbiponesto the west of the Paraguay, so well described by Dobrizhoffer,[677]were destroyed at the end of the eighteenth century, partly through conflicts with their congeners theMocovis, of whom there are no survivors.
All these tribes probably belonged to theGuaycuru linguistic family, established by L. Quevedo, whose most numerous representatives are now theTobasof southern Choco to the north of Pilcomayo, and theMatacoswho wander about between the latter river and the Vermejo.[678]We must further add to this group theCaduvesorCaduveiof the Brazilian bank of the Paraguay, between 20° and 23° S. lat., a hundred or so of unhybridised individuals, all that remain of the ancientMbayapeople, and thePayaguas, an ancient warlike and plundering tribe thought to have disappeared, but of which there remain between two and three score representatives in theimmediate neighbourhood of Assumption, peaceful basket-makers, potters, or fishers.[679]
TheLenguasof the ancient authors (a term used by them to describe very different tribes), who lived side by side with the Tobas, and of whom there remain but a few individuals, seem to form, with theGuanesof southern Chaco, theSanapanas, theAngaites, and other tribes between the Salado and the Yababeri (tributaries on the left of the Paraguay), a separate linguistic family, which Boggiani proposes to callEnnema. Their neighbours, theSamucosorChamococosof the Bolivian Chaco also constitute a special linguistic group, but their manners and customs approximate to those of the southern Arawaks.[680]
TheGuatosof the marshes which extend from the Paraguay to the Sao Laurenço also speak a special language. They are excellent boatmen, who fish with their great bows and bone-pointed arrows. They are also renowned as hunters of jaguars.[681]
Most of theGuaycurusand their neighbours seem to be of high stature and to have a brownish-yellow skin; but almost nothing is known either as to the shape of their head or their other somatic characters.
To the south of the Choco, between the Rio Salado de Santa Fe and the Rio Chubut, in the Pampas and the north of the Patagonian table-land, the primitive population which spoke the Guaycuru language in the north and the Patagonian language in the south, has disappeared. It has been absorbed ormodified by the invasions of the Araucans coming from the west, and by the encroachments of the Europeans coming from the east. The interminglings have given birth to new tribes like thePuelches, sprung from the Patagonians and the Araucans (p.551), with a strain of Guaycuru blood, and theGauchos, Guaycuru-European hybrids. The invasion of the Europeans increasing, the Puelches and the Araucans (Pehuenches,Rankels,Huilitches) have been pushed back farther and farther to the south. After the war of extermination waged by General Roca in 1881, the “Pampeans” migrated in a mass to the south of the Rio Negro, where they absorbed a portion of the Patagonians, driving away the remainder to the south of the Rio Santa Cruz.[682]
Cramped between this river and the Strait of Magellan, thePatagoniansorTehuelches, who call themselves by the name ofTsoon-ké, are now reduced to 2000 individuals.Those dwelling far from the coasts, as well as theOnasof Tierra del Fuego (the only Patagonian tribe that does not possess horses), have perhaps better preserved the characteristics of the Patagonian race. They are very tall (from1 m. 73 to1 m. 83 according to different authors), very brachycephalic (average ceph. ind. on the living sub., 85), have an elongated face, thinnish nose, eyes slightly oblique, projecting cheek-bones.[683]
Yahgan FuegiansFIG.175.—Tualanpintsis, Yahgan Fuegian (height1 m. 59, ceph. ind. 81.6);and his wife Ticoaeli (height1 m. 40, ceph. ind. 80.1).(Phot. Cape Horn Scient. Mission.)
FIG.175.—Tualanpintsis, Yahgan Fuegian (height1 m. 59, ceph. ind. 81.6);and his wife Ticoaeli (height1 m. 40, ceph. ind. 80.1).(Phot. Cape Horn Scient. Mission.)
The Fuegians (Figs.48,174, and175) inhabit the southern and western coasts of Tierra del Fuego, as well as the archipelagoes which lie to the west and south of this great island. They form a population by themselves, divided into two tribes,theYahgansto the south of the chain running from Sarmiento to Mount Darwin, and theAlakalufsto the north of this chain. I have mentioned several facts concerning the somatic characters (pp.89,108, etc.) and the ethnic ones (p.146, note2, pp.181,189,214, etc.) of the Fuegians. Let me further add that the predominant type among them is that of the Palæo-American sub-race. Their language is not yet classified. The Alakalufs are at the present day reduced to 200 individuals. The Yahgans, who numbered about a thousand individuals in 1884, no longer exist to-day as an independent tribe. The last survivors of ravages caused by epidemics are gathered together in the two missionary stations called Ushuaia (Beagle Channel) and Tekenika; numbering about 90, they are dressed in the European fashion, speak English, and are employed in the various works at the mission.[684]
AVERAGE HEIGHT OF MEN, 288 SERIES (see p.29).
CEPHALIC INDEX, 336 SERIES (see p.75).