The Pampeans are principally nomadic hordes wandering from pasture to pasture with their horses, cattle and sheep. Their transitory encampments, called tolderias, are pitched by the side of some pond or stream. There their low tents made of dried horse skins are grouped confusedly, one to each family. Their food is chiefly horse flesh and mutton, often eaten raw. They raise no vegetables, and dislike agriculture. They carry on, however, many small industries, tan and dye leather, which they work up into boots and horse furniture, and forge with skill iron heads for their long lances, and knives for the chase, while the women trim the ostrich skins into rugs, and weave wool into blankets and ponchos, highly prized for their serviceable qualities.[530] These products are bought up by the merchants in the cities, and thus the tribe is supplied with what it most prizes from European markets.

These roving hordes have no particular names. They are referred to as the northern, eastern or western peoples by the Aucanian terms having these significations, Puelches, Moluches, Huiliches. Besides these, there are the Ranqueles on the Rio Quinto, directly west of Buenos Ayres, who are said to have immigrated from Chili,[531] and the Querandies, now probably extinct, who once dwelt near that city.

Those living on the eastern slopes of the Andes, about the city of Mendoza, and in the ancient province of Cuyo, are described as taller and stronger than the Araucanians of Chili, and as claiming descent from the Pampean tribes.[532] They were locally known as Guarpes, and spoke dialects called the Allentiac and the Milcocayac, not distant from the Pampean proper, concerning which some grammatical description has been preserved.[533]

Few of the Pampean tribes have been induced to accept civilization or Christianity. They still believe in their good spirit, Chachoa, and in one of evil or misfortune, Gualicho; they continue to obey their priests or medicine men; and the resting places of the dead are regarded with superstitious awe. Marriage among them, while it has the appearance of violence, is really carried out with the consent of the girl and her parents, for a sum agreed upon.

The Molu-Che or Manzaneros are said to be the best of the Pampeans. They are sedentary and have extensive orchards of apples and flocks of sheep to the north of the Rio Limay. They have well-cut features, fresh light complexion, black fine hair, and their women are considered really handsome.[534]

The Araucanians of Chili, known as singularly bold warriors who defied successfully the Incas, and gave the Spaniards the greatest trouble, occupy the Pacific coast from south latitude 25° to about 43°, and number about 20,000. In physical appearance they resemble the Pampeans, and present marked differences from both the Kechuas of Peru and the Tapuyas of Brazil, having high, brachycephalic skulls,[535] and a clear copper color of skin. They are of moderate stature, but muscular, with black hair, round faces, small eyes, and small feet and hands. They are divided locally into northern and southern tribes, but there is little difference in dialects. Their tongue, the Chilidungu, has been extravagantly lauded by some who have studied it, and one worthy missionary was so enamored with it that he published a grammar and dictionary of it in Europe, that it might be introduced as the learned language there, to supersede the Latin:[536] it certainly is harmonious and flexible.

The Araucanians did not at any time rise in culture above the level of the Iroquois and Algonquins in the northern continent. It is true that in the tombs in their country we discover fine specimens of pottery, some good work in bronze, gold, copper and silver, and beautiful specimens of polished stone implements.[537] But if one examines closely the art-forms of these relics, he can not fail to recognize in them the potent inspiration of the Inca civilization; and we may be sure that if they were not directly booty from that nation, they were the products of its trained workmen, and are not to be put to the credit of Aucanian industry.

AUCANIAN LINGUISTIC STOCK.