The Land of Magellanes, with Some Account of the Ona and Other Indians Author(s): W. S.

Barclay Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 1904), pp. 62-79 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1775739 Accessed: 11/11/2009 07:15
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( 62 )
THE LAND OF MAGELLANES, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ONA AND OTHERINDIANS.*
By W. S. BARCLAY.

IT is proposed to give a brief sketch of the territory of Magellanes, comprising the uttermost extremity of the South American continent, and to treat of the tribes who dwell therein-the Yaghans, the Alacalufs, and more especially the Ona Indians of the island of Tierra del Fuego. There are few regions whose physical features and climate present more startling contrasts. The settlements of Sandy Point and Ushuaia lie in almost the same latitudes south as do London and Edinburgh in the north, yet the steamers which pass constantly along the Beagle channel and the Magellan straits, bearing the varied freight of modern commerce,pass here by great glaciers which have pushed their way to the water's very edge, in whose shadow dwell primitive races still practising the arts of the Stone Age. Politically, the name Tierra del Fuego applies only to the largest island of the Magellan archipelago. The anxiety of Argentina to share with Chili the command of these southern passages led her to retain as Argentine territory all the land east of a line dropped from Cape Virgers along the 68? 36' parallel of longitude to the shores of the Beagle channel. Thus she has about one-third of Tierra del Fuego, or "Terra Del," as the Anglo-Saxon brevity of the sheep-farmers has rechristened the big island, and also Staten island. Her use of this latter as a military penal sattlement has been one of the many factors which have combined to overwhelm the Fuegan aborigines. Chilian Magellanes also includes a large portion of the Patagonian mainland. This paper takes for its scope, however, only that portion of Magellanes which lies south of the straits bearing the name of the great navigator. The land of Magellanes divides itself naturally into three portions, each of which claims a tribe. These we may roughly claes as (1) The Yaghans of the Horn and Beagle channel; (2) the Alacalufs of the Magellan straits; (3) the Onas of Tierra del Fuego. Let us study them in this order. The first portion, comprising the extreme south and south-west lands of the archipelago, presents the aspect of a submerged mountain chain, whose summits now are aloie visible. The islands thus formed are exposed to the full force of continual southerly gales. Their steep sides, naked save for the mossthat clings to some meagre crevice, are streaked 500 feet high with the white sea-drift. On their lee side, and in less exposed situations leading to the inner channels, they are covered with a dense growth of stunted beech woods. In a latitude of only
* Map, p. 152.

THE LAND OF MAGELLANES.

63

55? to 56? S., the line of perpetual snow comes as low as 1500 feet above sea-level. During a short week the summer climate will present all the variations which, in the same latitude north, might reasonably be looked for throughout a twelvemonth. Hurricane gusts alternate with breathless calms, showers of rain and sleet with a hothouse sun. This is the land of the Yaghans, the men who mark the limit of human life in the south, whose hunting-grounds are disputed only by the sleek seals and screaming gulls that play around the Horn. Oar knowledge of this tribe is remarkably complete, since the South American Mission Society has maintained a station amongst them for over thirty years. This station was formerly fixed at Ushuaia, but the reluced numbers of the tribe and the settlement of the Argentine Government at this spot rendered it advisable to remove to Tekinike, on Hoste island, some 60 miles back of the False Horn, where it is actually established. The Rev. Thos. Bridges, late missionary at Ushuaia, compiled a dictionary of the Yaghan language, which, according to his statement, possesses thirty thousand words. It must be presumed, however, that many of these are compound, for the language is essentially an agglutinative one. As an example, we find the use of verbs in three separate numbers, each a distinct word conjugated apart from its fellows. This flexibility of language is marked in a tribe whose intellect in other directions is so limited, for they do not know how to count above the fingers of one hand. There is, moreover,a marked divergence between the speech of the Wollaston or Cape Horn natives and those who frequent the shores of the Beagle channel. The variety of land and climate in Magellanes extends to the speech of its inhabitants, for there is, again, a difference between the speech of the Onas living in the northern and southern portions of "Terra Del," so great as to make them almost unintelligible to one another. Darwin confounds the Yaghans with the Onas, which latter he only saw once, on that occasion when the Beagle anchored in Good Success bay. lte also asserted, on the statement of a capturedYaghan, "Jimmy Button," that the tribe were cannibals, and although this statement has since been repeatedly disproved, it has none the less gained popular credence. With all the three tribes, but especially with the Onas, the injury of any member of a family implies a blood vendetta against the aggressors. It is difficult, therefore, to see how such a practice could ever have obtained without some marked modification of their social usage. The report may take its origin in the fact that strangulation is resorted to to remove the burden of malformed infants and the incurably sick. Judging from the specimens who have attained maturity in the service of the English missions, the natural intelligence of the Yaghan

64

THE LANDOF MAGELLANES,

appears at least equal to that of other aboriginal South Americantribes. Under the severe and above all the uncertain stress of his surroundings, however, his mental capacity appears to become stunted or atrophied. Ile must constantly shift camp, to seek his food-supplyon a coast where the most that can be hoped is that the new camping-groundwill not be worse than the old. In northern latitudes the Esquimaux can build himself a temporary home, and in the regular sequence of slow-changing seasons lay up provision for himself and his family. The Yaghan, who is born 1500 miles nearer the equator, lives, literally, from hand to mouth. He braves the seas of the Horn, naked, in a frail bark canoe. He owns no faith, religion, or tribal tie other than that of the family which huddles together for food and sustinence. His only household goods are the smouldering firebrands which he carries on a slab of shingled turf in his canoe to each fresh halting-place. The women (usually two) paddle the canoe from the stern. The man crouches in the bow, on the look-out for prey. On the shore run one or two dogs, to sniff out and turn any lurking otter or sea-bird. The long kelp that fringes the coast serves as a breakwater for the frail craft, whose crew only venture out into the open channels when their foresight tells them that a calm will be of sufficient duration to enable them to pass from one inhospitable beach to another. They are unduly developed in the torso at the expense of the lower limbs, for they pass their lives thus circling the coasts. Fishing without hooks, living on mussels and fungus, this tribe marks the limit to which man may strip himself of all aid or comfort and yet survive and perpetuate his kind. This warfare against the elements has not only stunted the mental growth of the Yaghans; it has drained their vitality, till the ravages of disease following on their contact with whites have been startling. Since the seal-fisheries opened up thirty years ago, followed by the gold rush of later years, their numbers dropped from 2500 till to-day they number a bare two hundred all told. The most fatal diseases are pulmonary, and if the present rate of mortality continues, in another five years only a very few members of the tribe can survive. This remnant have the name of making excellent and fearless sailors, but both men and women have a passion for drink, are incurable liars, and
lazy.

The Yaghans tell a story-which is current among the Alacalufs also-of a giant of stone, who was wont formerly to rush out from a recess in the channels, capsizing the canoes, and killing the men, but fetching the women alive to his wigwam. This monster was finally killed by a heroic youth of the tribe, but not the dread of him, which survives to the present day. The story is probably an embodimentof the many accidents to which these canoe-folk are liable from dangerous winds which, wandering among the splintered hilltops, come down the ravines and glaciers in fierce gaits which not even an Inaiin'd iantinat

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65

can foresee. This is confirmed by mention of the drowning of the men, who, although canoe-dwellers, cannot swim, while the women all boast an accomplishment which is to a measure forced upon them. It is part of their duty to moor the canoe, and on a weather shore this must be done by tying it to the kelp some distance out, after which they return as best may be to the camp-fireon shore. The second portion of Magellanes lies along the network of fjords which open out to both sides of the western Straits. This country is protected by the outermost breakwater, or breakweather,and is therefore of a less inhospitable nature than the Yaghan territory. Never-

TYPICAL ONAS.

theless the landscape is wild, gloomy, and incredibly intricate. Long peninsulas hang to their title by the merest shred of land; channels wind unexpectedly away through refts in the living rock. Such a one was discovered in 1901 leading from the Cockburn channel to Desolate bay, and though only practicable for small craft, a previous knowledge of it would have spared many a disaster to schooners seeking the Beagle channel by the dangerous Brecknock Pass. Along the shores of the creeks are strips of open ground, with abundant fish and bird life, and inexhaustible stores of shellfish. Further inland the country is uninhabitable. The hillsides are clothed with dripping beech woods,* which * Fagusantarcticus and Fagusbetuloides, its greaterpart. in No. I.--JANUARY, 1904.]

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THE LAND OF MAGELLANES,

shelter few if any living creatures. On every hand in their gloomy depths lie wrecks of the short-lived forest, rotting trunks bedded kneedeep in spongy moss, fern-coatedand solid to the eye, but shattering to pieces at a blow. Truly in these stagnant ravines death, not life, seems the predominant spirit. Higher up, on the knees of the cliffs, there may be some open ground; a tiny tarn, or a bog, whose waters, collected from a dozen brown streamlets, hurry along under the quaking peat. This is the country of the Alacalufs. This tribe, who number to-day some 800, are the most numerous of the Fuegan aborigines. Little or nothing is known of their inner life. Mr. Thomas Bridges, who once spent a week with a friendly group, reported their speech as differing in structure from the Yaghan, though with much oral similarity. This likeness arises from the free use by both tribes of the nasal consonants and vowels, and in a Welsh pronunciationof the 11. Of the two, the Alacaluf is the harsher tongue. The character of this tribe is crafty, sullen, enduring, and treacherous. Their constant intercourse with ships passing through the Straits, while enabling them to acquire most of the white man's vices-notably that of drink-has in no way modified the suspicion and dislike with which they regard him. They have an evil reputation for attacking helpless, shipwrecked crews, yet they are the reverse of warlike; nor will they seek an encounter unless in overwhelming numbers, and when tempted by the prospect of plunder. Equally at home on land or water, their outfit includes the bow and arrow-unknown to the Yaghans-as well as the sling, spear, or harpoon,knife, and humbler implements of the chase. Their canoes of beech dug-outs are the largest of any on the South American coast, and will often hold twenty or thirty persons. The knot with which they weave their fishing-nets of seal-sinew is the same as that used by European fishermen. The last portion of Magellanes, where the Onas once held undisputed sway, shows us a brighter and infinitely more varied country than either of those we have reviewed. With its snow-clad mountains,dense forest, and rugged coast on the one hand, on the other wind-swept tableland and open pampa facing a shelving shore, the island of Tierra del Fuego is an epitome of Southern America. The northern portion of the island, facing the first and second narrows of the Straits, is a continuation of the Patagonian tablelands, which terminate in a transversal depression between Useless and San Sebastian bays. Boulder erratics, some of which weigh many tons, and numeroussalt and brackish lakes, point to glacial action at this spot, and a comparatively recent immersion below sea-level. South again we get a true pampean formation-light alluvium resting on sandy marl-which nestles in the last crook of the Andes. Owing to the shelter thus afforded,the lowlands of Tierra del Fuego boast a better climate than the Patagonian coast for 500 miles north, the latter being

WITH SOME ACCOUNTOF THE ONA AND OTHER INDIANS.

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exposed to biting south-westerly winds which blow without ceasing and form the chief drawback to settlement in an otherwise desirable region. The grasses of the Fuegan pampas are nutritious on the higher slopes, and in the river-bottoms luxuriant. They have an additional advantage in abundant running streams, fed from the snowclad hills behind. An experienced Australian sheep-farmeronce summed the region up to the writer as " the best natural sheep country in the world." Back of the Pampas the land rises in broken hill-spurs, whose sides are the more densely forested as they approach the Martial mountains, a triple range that parallels the greater length of the Beagle Channel. Entering the channel from the east, we halt first at Har-

THE LAND OF THE HORN.

burton creek, where flourishes the stock farm of Messrs. Bridges, pioneers of such enterprise in the far south. Back of Harburton stands Mount Cornu, its 4300 feet marking the last notable peak of the great Andean range. Forty miles to westward the clear-cut pyramid of Mount Olivia signals Ushuaia--" the little bay within a bay "-if we translate from the soft Yaghan tongue. The triple peak of Mount French rising beyond Yandegaia inlet buttresses the eastern point of the Darwin range, at whose other extremity stands Mount Sarmiento (7330 feet), the highest peak in Magellanes. A counterfort of the Darwin range forms the Brecknock peninsula, where the snowfields vanish and bare ribs and knuckles of rock show more plainly as they push into the teeth of the south-west gales. The interior of this
F

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6THELAND OF MAGELLANES,

peninsula, and indeed of all the land south-west of the cordon formed by Admiralty Sound and Lake Fagnano, is uninhabited. Only jagged summits of rock pierce the packed snow-fields, and on every hand great glaciers descend to the broken coast-line. Here, save along the course of some torrential stream, the dark beech forest grows on every possible slope. At sea-level its trunks attain a height of 80 feet, but as they near the snow-line the woods are dwarfed and twisted into the intricacy of a box-hedge, and further progress is only possible by walking, not through, but on top of the trees. Lake Fagnano, so named after the pioneer bishop of the Silician monks, lies to the north of the Martial mountains. The lake, which is some 200 feet above sea-level, with a length of 54 miles and an average breadth of 3 miles, forms a catchment basin for mountain torrents,whose waters it distributes in a general north-easterlydirection. After halting through various minor lakes and morasses,these emerge on the Atlantic shore under the names of the Rio Grande, Sauce, and Ewan. The Rio Azopardo,flowing west into the Admiralty sound, forms an exception to this rule. From the Beagle channel two deep valleys wind between the Martial ranges to within 20 miles of the lake. One starts from Lapataia inlet, and follows the course of the Rio Roca; the other, known as the Moat valley, debouches some 12 miles east of Harburton. Some idea of the difficult nature of this lake district may be given by the "road" opened by Messrs. Bridges from Harburton to Rio Grande,in order to establish overland connection between the Beagle channel and the Atlantic shore during the frequent intervals, when the Le Maire straits are impassable or at least dangerous to small craft. This road, the only one which connects the official capital of Ushuaia with the northern settlers in Tierra del Fuego, measures as the crow flies 72 miles, and for any one not Indian-born formerly took three weeks to cover. A hundred Indians were employed a twelvemonth in levelling its difficulties, yet even now it is impracticable save on foot, when a strong and active man may do the journey in six days. An inaugural trip was arranged last year for the Governor of Ushuaia, but after climbing two mountains, and looking from a third into a ravine where the path continued through part forest and part morass,that gentleman decided to declare the highway open on the good faith of its makers. It is this Lake Fagnano district, i.e. the western and central portion of the island, which shelters the remnant of the Ona tribe, numbering about 600 all told. Between the Indians who fringe on the pampa region and those who are confinedto the more hilly country in the south there is a marked division, intensified by many a long-standing feud. What is the origin of these Fuegan tribes ? Do the Onas, true foot hunters, claim ancestry from the Patagonians of the Atlantic seaboard, maroonedby some vagary of the coast-line on what is now an island, though formerly part of the mainland ? Are the Yaghan and Alacalup

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69

canoe-men offshoots of the Chronos Indians of Chili, creeping down to the Horn by the narrow channels of the archipelago? The surmise obtains partial confirmation from the wide divergence of speech between these two branches of the Fuegan tribes. That of the Yaghans is soft and liquid-a chatterbox tongue. The Ona, on the contrary, frames his thoughts in short words and laboured sentences, in a language of harsh clicks and gasping gutturals, "scarcely deserving," says Darwin, " according to our notions, to be called articulate." They make use of

LAPUTAIA WOODLAND STREAM.

an elusive, half-breathed final n, which in ordinary conversation is inaudible to all but Ona ears. The whole impression given to the hearer is that of a language in its raw beginnings. In their names for common objects, they attempt a direct phonetic interpretation, as in "glo-glollsh," the river duck," kerr-prrh," the red-tailed parroquet, and many others. To stormy Cape Penas, on the north-east coast of the island, they have given a name which resembles nothing so much as the whistling of wind through a narrow crevice. Whatever be the origin of the Ona tribe, it at least dates back to a

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THE LAND OF MAGELLANES,

time sufficiently remote for their language to establish itself as a medium quite apart and distinct from their neighbours. Their anomalous position as an island tribe which does not venture upon water endows them with a special interest. They stood apart from the restless migration and fusion, which that common graveyard of the South American races, the valley of the Rio Negro, proves to have taken place among the tribes of the Patagonian mainland. Moreover,the Onas are without that taint of European blood from which few, if any, of the existing aborigines in Latin America can be accounted free. Spain's colonies in Magellanes, founded by Sarmiento in 1580 for purely political reasons,perished to a man. After the discovery of Cape Horn robbed the straits of their paramount importance as a gateway to the East, there was nothing in these bleak shores to tempt settlement by the descendants of the Conquistadores,or, till quite recent times, by any one else. So there are no half-breeds among the Ona. They are a prehistoric fragment of humanity, preserved to us intact. In appearance the Ona men average some 5 feet 10 inches in height, but the women fall a good four inches short of this. The apparent corpulence of both sexes, induced by the cold climate, disguises an immense muscularity. Their skin is of a light copper hue, though usually much overlaid with grease and clay pigment. The characteristic American physiognomy, with its prominent cheekbones, strong chin, and slightly aquiline nose--the eyes free from the Mongol obliquity which marks the Yaghan-has an intelligent and for the most part a good-humouredexpression. The hair is straight, black, and coarse. A slight beard is removed by plucking, and the eyebrows are treated in the same way, all growth except on the scalp being considered a blemish, or at all events unfashionable. The tribe is scattered through the island in small groups, each rarely exceeding thirty or forty members, who are all in some way connected by blood or marriage ties. These groups maintain traditional friendship or vendetta with their neighbours, the latter usually arising from a poaching dispute on their respective hunting-grounds. They have no headmen, but individuals naturally take the lead from their exceptional skill in hunting or else as "doctors,"who take the same place, though with much less influence, as the African medicine-man, and have charge of all sick persons. Their stock-in-trade consists of a rude massage, accompanied by a few simple accomplishments of the palming and trick-swallowing kind. The suffereris mouthed over and kneaded with much grotesque pantomime, and after a time an arrow-head,a piece of long sinew, or a pointed stick is brought to light and shown as the cause of pain. Identical ministrations to the same end are in commonuse among the Matacosof the Argentine Chaco,but a peculiarity of the Ona system of massage is that it is often done by treading the patient with the feet Among a folk whose complaints in a

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natural state arise mainly fromrheumatism,over-fatigue, and indigestion, the practice seems to have a basis of commonsense. A woman hides away for two or three days during childbirth, when she will return to. her appointed tasks, and even add to them, making long journeys to fetch extra firewood,in order that her energy may flow in the veins of her suckling. She will not publicly exhibit the infant, nor is it etiquette for the father even to inquire its sex for fifteen or twenty days more. When on the march, women bear the

THE ANTARCTIC BEACH, RISING TIER ON TIER.

burdens of the camp equipment, as well as any stores of food, the whole carried in guanaco-skin bags of surprising lightness in proportion to their capacity. The infant takes his place amongst this mixed load, but at night he is bound to a kind of miniature ladder whose lower stakes are sharpened and stuck into the ground. The child is thus held in a half-recumbent position above risk of damp and chill. The preparations of the rest of the family are simple in the extreme. A fire is lit; a few low sticks and skins are placed to windward, and

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THE LAND OF MAGELLANES,

the grass and moss in the space between is scraped away to the depth of 6 inches with the shoulder-bladeof a guanaco, which useful implement also serves as a plate at meal-times. Wrapped in the long fur robes which are their only garment, men and women lie down together with no other cover than the stars. The family circle is completed by many dogs, which pile up in the centre to add their warmth and cover any protruding limb. These dogs are trained to lie alongside the younger children when left alone by their parents in cold weather. The Onas are forced to a nomadic life by the wandering habits of the guanaco, on which they depend for their staple food. This fare is varied by tuco-tucos (ctenomys), birds, and stranded fish, and they are fond of blubber, but this last treat is always due to an accident, and not to their own provision. As an anti-scorbutic they eat the roots of the tussock, somewhat resembling those of asparagus in appearance, and also wild celery, which abounds all over the island. The meat diet creates in them a craving for farinaceous food, and their greatest luxury is a hard ship's biscuit. The only weapon known or used by the men is the bow, with which they will shoot as far as 120 yards with great rapidity, while they are fairly certain of hitting a 6-inch bull's-eye at 30 paces. They are chary of wasting arrows, however, trusting rather to get an easy shot by careful stalking, which they have carried to a science. A guanaco fur peak is worn on the forehead on purpose not to scare the wary game. With their stock of clay pigments they stain their naked bodies to match the ground over which they must advance; over snow they paint themselves white, yellow when among the pampagrass, slate-colour spotted with red when among rocks. Ona arrows have beautifully chipped though small heads, and the plentiful supply of bottles to be found near the white settlements furnishes them with a material which they consider superior to the original flint. This is probably the only important change which has taken place in Ona arrow work since remote times. As the tools used for working up either material are the same, it may be of interest to give a list of them. 1. The bottle, or piece of flint, is smashed into small pieces. 2. Small guanaco bones are selected to chip the fragments of flint or glass. 3. Another sharp stone is necessary to prepare the guanaco bone ttool." 4. A larger stone to serve as anvil. 5. A piece of pumice-stone to grind and polish the point. This is for finishing touches only. The other necessaries for arrow-making are: a smaller bone chisel to work down the birch arrow-shafts; a bit of foxskin to use with polishing-dust; goose feathers, which must be taken from the tip of the right wing to have the proper bias; sinew taken from the back of a

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guanaco to bind on the feathers; and, finally, a little pitch to finish off the whipping. From this list it will be seen that if ingenuity is wanting to invent better tools, dexterity is required to produce with them a piece of finished work, which the Ona arrow undoubtedly is. In fighting, the men shoot first from ambush, then in the open, and finally close empty-handed, the object being to break the opponent's back or neck by wrestling, but they will not mutilate or torture a foe. During a skirmish the women and children are left some distance back in the woods. When swift flight is necessary, men and women retreat together, leaving the children buried in a long trench, packed like sardines, with a skin to cover each helpless head and provide a breathing-hole to the air. Under cover of night the women steal back to

A TYPICAL FUEGAN STREAM.

recover their offspring, who are apparently none the worse for a twenty hours' fast passed in absolute silence. Thus the child early imbibes the protective instinct of all wild things, and will, if alarmed, blot himself out like a partridge behind a shrub or tuft of grass. A race of the finest hunters and stalkers in the world, their moral code is based up on a standard of physical culture and health, in which unsoundness is condemned as vice; their recreations mainly in wrestling and footraces, more of endurance than speed, where they run 10 miles across a forest country to some hilltop. They also amuse themselves practising with the bow and arrow, acting themselves as moving targets for each other. In both men and women the sense both of sight and hearing is extraordinarily acute. They will distinguish details with the naked eye as

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THE LAND OF MAGELLANES,

far as a white man, even a sailor, can with a good field-glass. They are capable of long abstinence, and follow a week-old trail across the island with no other food than a few dried sinews or a piece of guanaco hide to chew. Their only drink is cold water, and they have a horrorof tobacco or other drugs. The tie between man and man, whether as blood relation or simple friend, is far more binding than that between man and woman, even when they are man and wife. There is a legend current that in former days it was the women who held the whip-hand among the Onas. Theirs was all the hunting, theirs the conclaves apart, while to the men was assigned the monotonous drudgery of the camp. So now the men have peopled the rocks and woods, the white mists and running water, with phantoms-bogies in which they themselves do not believe, but which are a strong moral aid in dealing with refractory wives and wilful children. The men personify these ghosts, which have no legend or story attached to them, being simply a representation of the more striking natural objects among which their lives are passed. The number and qualification of these ghosts is as follows:a Sh'ord,* malicious underground spirit with crooked legs. He is represented covered all over with the feathers of birds (stuck on with grease). Hach'i,the spirit of the moss and lichen-covered rocks. He is painted slate-colour, with daubs of red and yellow clay, and wears horns. H'alpin is a woman,the spirit of the clouds and mists. She is dressed all in white, and has a very long head. This shape is given by binding twigs to the back of the head, which are then covered with skin and painted. Fan'u is the spirit of the streams and lakes. She is the sister of Halpin, and is got up in the same way, except that her colour is red. C'mantuis the spirit of the beech forests, and is clothed with treebark and moss. Hash'ai is very squat, and has a claw on the forefinger of each hand. He is always gathering firewood, but never makes a fire. This spirit seems an embodiment of that nervous fear which makes itself felt in the deep forest, when branches creak and twigs snap for no apparent reason. Finally there isthe Olimnin'cke, little surgeon-doctor,who attends to the ailments of all this crew. Although the cult of these mysterious beings does not reach the dignity of a religion, it binds them together in a freemasonry so strong
* N.B.-The division in these names represents a gasping aspirate, which it is impossible to set down in writing.

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that the man who betrays or the woman who is suspected of having penetrated its secrets is quietly put to death. Up to the age of about fourteen, the boys also are firm believers in the reality of these phantoms, and with good reason, for they have been purposely chased and frightened to that end. As the time of their initiation approaches they are seriously exhorted by their elders. They must be keen hunters, and equally keen to follow up the family vendetta. They must be careful of their own bodies, despising greed, and, above all, allowing no woman to share their intimate thoughts. At a succession of night meetings the boys are then introduced to the

YAGHAN MEN AT THE ENGLISH MISSION, TELINIKE.

various spirits, who disclose themselves as membersof their own family. The boy's staunchness in keeping the secret is tested in various ways. A common one is to insert a pine splinter into the arm or thigh and to set light to it, leaving the flesh to extinguish the flame-an operationof which the victim is supposed to be cheerfully unconscious. The scars thus made are afterwards worn by the boys with the same pride that a German student shows in the sword-cuts which are tokens of his duelling-days. The name given to these ceremonies is clock'ten; and after he has passed through them, a boy drops his own name for a time, and is known as "clock'ten," or probationer. This "clock'ten" period usually lasts about two years. It must be passed by the youth apart from his family in making long excursions and in hunting (poaching on

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the land of a neighbouring group is preferred). He is only allowed the help of a single dog. Only hard sinewy meat may be eaten, and no fat-a very real deprivation in the Fuegan climate. Gradually he becomes admitted to the full confidence of the older men, who count it, meanwhile, one of their chief amusements to set traps for his inexperience. During his wanderings the young brave looks out for a suitable mate among neighbouring groups, for with all their promiscuity of family life, the Onas do not permit the marriage tie between two persons connected by the blood-tie, even to the degree of cousins. On the other hand, a deceased wife's sister is regarded as that lady's natural successor. Neither may a youth marry until he has proved his capacity to provide for extra mouths among the group. Thus, although he practises polygamy, an Ona will rarely take a second wife until the cares of his household are more than one pair of hands, or shoulders,can manage. The routine of courtship is Spartan. When the girl is from a friendly group, the gallant presents her with his huntingbow. If the girl returns it by her own hand, it is a sign of acceptance; if by the hand of a messenger, it is a refusal. But refusals are not common. The persevering brave watches for an opportunity which brings him alone with the object of his affections. He then commands her to follow him with all speed through the bush to his own camp. The girls are used to yield prompt obedience, for a disappointed suitor may emphasize his displeasure by an arrow directed lightly at the thigh or at her calves-the especial vanity of an Ona belle. No dower or present is in either case given to the father of the bride, wherein again the Ona custom differs from the Yaghan. It is considered unmanly to show hunger or fatigue. If a hunter kill game, the tribal law rules that he may not partake of it-save for the " hunter's meat,"i.e. intestine fat-but must first bring it back to the camp, even if it be a day's marchdistant. It is then portionedout among the family by some other person, and in this division the hunter will often be content with the smallest share, though he claims the pelt as his by right. As they have no pottery, and skin utensils will not stand fire, they are ignorant, beyond a simple roast, of the art of cooking. The women warm water to give to little children by holding it in their mouths. When an Ona dies, his more valuable possessions, such as the bow, the arrows, and his fur robes, become the property of his relations; small personal effects, such as fire-stone, scraping flints, pigments, etc., are buried with him. Saplings are bound to the body with raw-hide thongs, which is buried deep, lying flat and straight. The grave is then stamped down, the sods which have been removed are once more carefully fitted to their place, and a fire is kindled over them to remove all trace of the interment. The chief mourners express their grief

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during and after this ceremony by long-drawn howls, repeated at intervals, much as a dog might. Yet if their rites are few, their grief is sincere. Recently an old Indian clasped the body of his son, who had died from the effects of a dog-bite, in his arms, and, refusing comfort, deliberately starved himself to death. The period of mourning lasts from one year to three, during which time the head is tonsured. This operation is effected by passing a bone comb close to the scalp, and burning off all protruding hair with a live ember. The dead are never mentioned by name, but always in some roundabout way. Their spirits are vaguely supposed to exist after death under the name of Meh'n; but as these spirits, though they are supposed to know what passes on earth, are unable to influence the course of events, this practical race pays them little heed. Of gods, as we understand that term, the Onas have none. The men are as devoid of any faith as they are of fear or superstition. But they recount by the fireside tales of a mighty hunter and " doctor," called Coanyipe, in whom is embodied all their admiration of manly skill and prowess. Moreover, their imagination has given personal attributes to the sun and moon, to hill and wood, bird and beast-in a word, to all that nature to which they lie so close. The following legends, chosen from many, will sufficiently illustrate their mental range. They are noticeably free from the disgusting animalism which taints every Yaghan tale.
ONA LEGENDS.

Legendof the Sun and Moon. Cr'en, the sun, was once a great hunter, and the most beautiful man in Onaland. One day after hunting, as he was coming home with a great load of guanaco meat, he noticed his wife talking to another woman at the edge of a lake. Leaving his load, he crept close to them through the rushes and listened. Here he learned that his wife Kerren, the Moon, had discovered the secrets of clock'ten, and was telling them to the other, so that all the women might know how the men deceived them and rise in revolt. When Cr'en heard what his wife was saying, he rushed out, and in anger struck her a blow upon the face, from which come the marks that she bears there to-day. Then she fled from him frightened, and he followed after, pursuing her till at last they came to the edge of a high bluff which overlooks the sea. The Moon, being blinded by her fear, sprang out beyond the cliff into the air, and when the Sun reached the cliff he sprang out too. So they may be seen, sometimes both in the sky, and sometimes only one; but although he still pursues her, Cr'en, the Sun, has never yet been able to catch his wife Kerren, the Moon. When a shooting star crosses the sky, the Ona say that it is a young man who goes to look for a wife.

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The Story of the Shag and the Flat-crestedVulture. Cwa-u-ishen, the Flat-crested Vulture, came from a country in the far south. It is so cold in that country that all the water is frozen, and the marrow in the bones of Cwa-u-ishen dried up, because he could find no water to drink. All the same, he was a very fierce, strong man, and he came to the land of the Ona to challenge them to wrestle. There stood up to meet him Cti'aishe, the Shag, who was a good wrestler, but a smaller man than the other. When they joined hands, the vulture got the lower grip, and putting out all his strength he pulled toward him, breaking the other's back. For that reason the shags now sit up very straight, with their backs a little hollowed in. But meantime Cti'aishehad caught him by the throat with one hand, driving the blood from it, so that it remained white, and with the other hand he tugged at the top of his head, and Cwa-u-ishen'shead has been bald and wrinkled since that time. So neither of them won; but in shame because he had boasted of victory, Cwa-u-shen changed his name, and now he is called Carcaai. He is the doctor of the south wind, and when he calls storms come, and mist and snow. The names bestowed upon Magellanes by the early mariners were ominous. Fury rocks, Famine reach, Desolation island, Useless baywe read in them a tale of hardship, peril, and loss. As if to continue the parallel through its later history, the currents which harry the shores of Tierra del Fuego have cast upon them a driftwood of reckless seamen, fur-traders,convicts, and last of all gold-seekers. The sheepfarmerswho hold the fertile northern pampas are comparativelyfew; but at the beginning of the last decade it was reckonedthat there were three thousand Austrians alone working in scattered parties as miners along the gold-bearing sands, or as sealers. The refuse of every seaport in South America was congregatedin Magellanes. Even now the Argentine Government counts as double the time served there by its officials. It is not necessary to dwell on the consequence to the aborigines of this lawless and unsettled immigration. On that point their reduced numbers speak with silent eloquence. Nowhere has the history of the white men's contact with a native race been carried to its inevitable conclusion with more ruthless severity. Yet if the Onas have been forced to' give their ground, they have not yielded their independence, nor forfeited their self-respect. They are still ignorant of the manufacture of any fermented drink, and twenty years of unscrupulous trading has not conqueredtheir aversion to spirits, even when members of the tribe have for a time accepted work among white settlements. This recordalone marks them a natural aristocracyamong the aboriginal races of South America. Helpless, hopeless, yet defiant, the Onas have defended their hills

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with a devotion and tenacity unknown to the degenerate Yaghan or the loose-living tribes of the Patagonian mainland. So it has come about that the impress of that land is stamped deep and clear upon them. Surely they are worthy of some little heed before they vanish for ever from our view; a race whose past is the tale of a continent, and their future-silence.

TIBET. I.
THE

THE ROADS TO TIBET.

By DOUGLAS W. FRESHFIELD.

following pages are an attempt to give, in a concise and convenient form, some of the information we possess with regard to the region and the roads likely to be traversed by British troops within the next few weeks. Most of this information has been gathered in the works of travellers and surveyors, from the narrative of Turner, and those of Bogle and Manning (as collected and annotated many years ago by our indefatigable President), down to the excellent Routes in Sikhim compiled mainly for military purposes by Captain (now Major) O'Connor, and published by the Indian Government for the information of travellers in 1900. I have been able to add, with regard to the Tista valley routes and the general character of the Tibetan uplands they lead to, some details from my own visit, four years ago, to the pastoral wilderness behind Kangchenjunga. Tibet is a very large country, some 1100 miles in length from east to west, and some 900 miles in breadth from north to south. Its boundary is coterminous, in three different directions, with that of British India, counting the states of Kashmir and Sikhim as British India. The frontiers meet in the far east, where the Brahmaputra breaks out of the mountains through narrow valleys of which their wild inhabitants still preserve the mystery; they meet again in the far west, where bleak passes connecting lofty plains admit of passage along the chain of the Himalaya by a route followed from time to time by embassies from Kashmir bearing presents to the Dalai Lama.* Between these points all but a narrow space in the centre is covered the territories of Nepal and Bhutan, still inaccessible to European by travellers and merchants. It is with this narrowcentral space alone, and the portions of Tibet adjacent to it, that we are at present concerned. In the first place, I must ask the reader to dismiss from his mind and his memory many of the crude generalizations based on imperfect recollection of travellers' descriptions of other parts of Tibet that have
* The present Dalai Lama was born in 1874, and assumed temporal power over Tibet in 1893. He is not therefore, as is often assumed, a child.