Year: 1879



 of the individual. Potro boots are s

 luxury reserved for men. The children,

 on whom most of the silver ornaments of the family are lavished, wear a capa

 like their elders, and on attaining the age of four or five are invested with the dignity of chiripa."

 (The $ chiripa" is a covering for the lower limbs, something like a kilt

 "When the women grow old they be- come repulsively ugly; but the young girls are by no means ill-favored, and the looks of even the plainest among them are invariably redeemed by the l bright, smiling expression habitual to them. Their hair Is worn in plaits, artifcially heightened by means of l horse-hair; their complexion, when free | from paint, is of ruddy healthy color, and their eyes, which are shaded by long black lashes, are soft and clear.

 Without going so far as to assert that the afaires ds cean' of the Tehnel che maidens are always strictly Platonic, I must say that, according to my own l observations and the confirming state ments of others, the relations between the sexes are uniformly characterized by strong sense of decency and unim- peachable propriety. Polyeamy is ad- mitted on principle; but no man may marry more wives than he can afford to maintain, and there is, therefore, sell dom more than one mistress to each household. Marriages dc conUenance are very rare, but, as a matter of form, the bride is purchased from her parents for certain number of mares, or what ever objects her lover can afford to give. But as the dowry of the girl generally quite compensates for the expense her lover has incurred in obtaining her the transaction Is considered rather as an exchange of presents. than as 8 mere unsentimental bargain. Out of mere curiosity to learn the technical details Of Fehnelche marriage settlements once entered into negotiations with rich old squaw for the purpose of contract ing matrimony with her daughter, who was a charming girl of about fifteen. The price as finally agreed upon was eight mares, a bag of biscuits, and some sugar, which I was to procure from Sandy Point. The dowry of the daugh- ter consisted in four new guanaco mau- tles I held out for five, and on my re- mainIng infexible on this point the ne gotiations fell through.

 Husband and wife seem always to

 

 of the pleasantest traits in the Tehnel che character Is the affection with which relations regard one another. The love of the parents toward their offspring Is almost morbid in its intensity. Their grief at the decease of an only child frequently msnifests itself in the most exaggerated manner. It Is not unusual in such cases for the pareuts to burn all their belongings, kill all their horses, and reduce themselves to a state of utter poverty-a touching proof of the sincerity and depth of their sorrow, if not of the soundness- of their views on practical economy.

 ''Their indulgence toward their chil dren Is unlimited. I have never seen 3 child chided or remonstrated with, whatever mischievious pranks 1t may have been up to, and in all their inter hal arrangements the interest of the baby portion of the community seems to be the first which Is consulted. For my part l must say I by no means shared in the feelings of the elders with regard to their youthful progeny; on the contrary, 1 always considered the latter as a most unmitigated nuisance. They are dirty and vicious, as mischiev ous as monkeys, and as thievish as magpies. One would think that, under such training, as they grew older their faults would increase; but just the con trary is the case, and by the time they attain their fifteenth or sixteenth year they abandon their brattish ways, and become respectable, steady going members of their community.

 'sThe division of labor in a Tehnel che n1endge is perhaps not strictly equi- table, for by far the greatest part of the days work falls on the fair sex. The men go hunting when the larder is low, and occasionally, in a dawdling kind of a way, they mend their riding gear, or make bolas, lassos, etc., but they have an insurmountable aversion to anything that looks like hard work. The sq uaws, on the other hand, are busy from morn ing till night. They are the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, and all the onus of housekeeping, breaking up the camp, arranging the tents -iu- cluding, of course, the care of the chil- dren, the cuistme, and so forth lis dele gated to them. When not otherwise employed they sew guanaco capas, or weave flets, an1 their fingers at all kinds of work are as nimble as their tongues, with which latter they keep up an incessant chatter, which, however, does not prevent them from getting through an astonishing amount of work.

 Of their religion little is to be said They recognize good spirit and bad spirit (GualIchu J but there is little sincerity or earnestness either in their reverence for the one, or in their fear of the other. According to the caprice of the moment either of these spirits IS most cavalierly treated by them, and the respect they occasionally profess toward them gives way as often as not to indifference, contempt. or anger. The fact IS, that with the Tehnelches the prime rule of life is to take every thing as easily as possible, to the ex- clusion of all other considerations, and acting on the doctrine of the E picure- ans, that 1t Is mans duty to endeavor to increase 10 the utmost his pleasures and diminish to the utmost his pains, they are careful not to admit any theo- ries which might possibly disturb their