[Illustration: Patagonians at Home.]
The boys and girls wear no clothes until they are four years old. After they are four years old they wear the same kind of clothes their fathers and mothers wear. The young girls wear their hair in braids. If their hair is not long enough, they make it longer by tying horsehair to it.
The houses in Patagonia are tents made of skins. There are rooms in the tents, and each grown-up person has a room. The fire is made inside the tent on the floor.
The people in Patagonia eat gua-na-co and ostrich meat. Some of the people drink a kind of tea made from the leaves of a plant. The leaves are first crushed fine, then put into water. They drink this tea through a small tube with many holes in it. The holes are so small that the pieces of leaves cannot come through. This tea is very good to drink. It makes the people very strong.
[Illustration: Guanaco.]
The women do all the work about the house. They make the clothes, carry home the wood for the fire, and bring water from the streams or wells.
The men do nothing but hunt. They hunt the guanaco and the ostrich. The guanaco is nearly as large as a cow, and has a head like a camel. Its flesh is good to eat, and the people make cloaks of its skin.
