The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1889-10-31
THE LOWEST OF HUMAN BEINGS.
Some Interesting Facts About the People
Of Terra del Fuego.

Of Terra del Fuego.
The advertising columns Of the Lon
don newspapers have recently announced
that nine capnlbals from Terra del
Fuego would be fed three times Il day in
view of the audience at the Aquarium.
At Two, six ard len o'clock the specta.
tors have enjoyed the privilege of seeing
these specimens of IN extraordinary type
of American savage heat their beef and
fish over fire, and then tear the. flesh
to pieces with their fingers and deyohr
it practically raw.
This family of Ona Indians arc the
only representatives of their large tribe
that have ever been taken from their
homes. Many years ago some natives
from the South coast were taken to Eng
land and received there a rudimentary
education. But the Onas, who are
spread over more than four-ifths Of the
great island, have been almost unknown
until the recent discoveries Of LiSta and
Pepper; and the mountain ranges that
parallel the South and West coasts have
been barrier which the natives on
either side have never tried to cross.
The family now in London includes a
woman about 80 years old, her son, a
tall and not bad-looklng specimen of his
race, his two wives, and their five chill
dren, ranging in age from to 16 years.
The thing about the Onas which most
stimulates scientific interest and popu-
lar curiosity is the fact that they are
regarded by some authorities as the
lowest stratum Of uncivilized humanity
that has yet been discovered. Many
years ago Darwin inclined to the belief
thatin the race he met in Beagle Canal
he had found the missing link in the
chain of evolution. In his last years
he was of the opinion that the data he
gathered in Terra del Fuego were too
meagre for valuable deductions; and it
is certain that had he extended his re.
searches North. of the mountains he
would have found a tribe that was even
lower in the scale of being than the
sayages he saw and described.
This family now in London seem to
possess the most limited vocabulary.
Lista said he could not learn that the
Onas have any words except those relat-
ing to hunting and fishing and the few
natural objects that interest them. Pop
per could never get them to speak except
IN monosyllables, and they seldom made
themselves ineligible. 1t is probable
that their vocabulary does not embrace
moro than 200 or 800 words.
1t would be interesting to know the
circumstances under which these speci.
mems were taken to England. Mr.
Farini, who has introduced them to the
Old World, has apparently published nc
account of the way they came into his
hands. 1t is not at all improbable that
they were taken captive and made the
journey unwillingly. Their tribe is ex-
ceedingly limid, and when their fleet
ness Of foot has not availed them to
escape from the whites, they have been
far more likely to launch arrows at
their pursuers than to accept friendly
overtures.
The brief accounts given in the Lon
don newspapers of these visitors bear
witness that they are blessed with Won
derful appetitcs. The explorers who
have seen them at home also testify that
when food is scarce they can endure
hunger with remarkable fortitude. Mr..
Stubenrauch, who has a sheep ranch
on the coast, tells curious story of
captive Ona girl, about sixteen years
old, who fell into his hands while he
was chasing her friends, who had been
stealing sheep. He says she refused to
take any kind of food for eight days.
On the ninth day he placed the car
cass of a sheep beside her. Breakfast
then began, lasted three hours, and
when it was over, as Mr.. Stubenrauch
asserts with great soemnity, the girls
body was swollen to extraordinary dl
meDsions and the sheep had almost
entirely disappeared.
A wretched little collection Of the
rudest hunting and fishing implements,
together with the guanaco skins they
wear in winter and which also, stretched
upon sticks and placed to windward OF
them, are their only shelter against the
elements, is exhibited in London. 1t
represents the entire range of the manu-
featuring arts as practlced by the Onas.
The masculine specimen in London is
taller than the women, and were it not
for this fact it might be difficult, clac
as they arc in their gudnaco skins, to
tell one from the other. Mr.. Pepper
asserts that he found it very difficult to
distinguish the sexes, but observation
finally taught him that the Indian carry
ing bow was always a man, while the
Indian weighted with heavy burden
was invariably woman.
Low as these miserable creatures are
in the scale OF humanity, it can hardly
be said that some of the poorest OF the
Shoshone tribes in our own latitude oc.
cupy Il much higher plane. Some ol
the wretchcd natives in Nevada and
other parts Of the Great Basin, living IN
holes dug in hillsides, or merely shell
tered by brush heaps, greedily eating
food that most other savages reject, are
Enthusiastically the poorest specimens OF
mankind in North America. AS the
Western historian Bancroft says, it l.
hardly possible to conceive Il lower
phase of humanity.-Ne,U York Sun.