Locality.—(roughly speaking)—south of the Chaco, and east of the Andes, as far as the Atlantic. The parts east of Chili. The word Puel=Eastern. Puel-che=Eastern People.
Synonym.—Pampa Indians.
HUILLICHÉ.
Locality.—Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
Divisions.—a. Patagonians. b. Fuegians.
Extracts respecting the physical appearance of the Patagonians:—
1. "One of them, who afterwards appeared to be chief, came towards me; he was of gigantic stature, and seemed to realise the tales of monsters in a human shape; he had the skin of some wild beast thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander wears his plaid, and was painted so as to make the most hideous appearance I ever beheld. Round one eye was a large circle of white; a circle of black surrounded the other, and the rest of his body was streaked with paint of different colours. I did not measure him; but if I may judge of his height by the proportion of his stature to my own, it could not be less than seven feet."—Byron.
2. "They have a fine shape; among those whom we saw not one was below five feet ten inches and a quarter (English), nor above six feet two inches and a half in height. Their gigantic appearance arises from their prodigiously broad shoulders, the size of their heads, and the thickness of all their limbs. They are robust and well fed; their nerves are braced, and their muscles strong, and sufficiently hard, &c."—Bougainville.
3. "The medium height of the males of these southern tribes is about five feet eleven inches. The women are not so tall, but are in proportion broader and stouter: they are generally plain-featured. The head is long, broad and flat, and the forehead low, with the hair growing within an inch of the eyebrows, which are bare; the eyes are often placed obliquely, and have but little expression; the nose is generally rather flat and turned up, but we noticed several with that feature straight and sometimes aquiline; the mouth is wide, with prominent lips, and the chin is rather large; the jaws are broad, and give the face a square appearance; the neck is short and thick; the shoulders are broad; the chest is broad and very full; but the arm, particularly the forearm, is small, as are also the foot and leg; the body long, large, and fat, but not corpulent. Such was the appearance of those who came under my observation."—King.
The previous extracts have been given because the great size of the Patagonians has been noticed by most of the voyagers who have described them—in some cases with considerable exaggeration. Illegitimate inferences, moreover, have been drawn from their supposed contrast to the Fuegians. These last, more undersized than over-sized, and ill-fed fish-eaters, like the Eskimo and Hottentot, have been separated too far from the populations nearest to them, and have been considered, by even good writers, as sufficiently distinct from the Indians of the Continent to form a separate division. Nay more, so much has been made of their sallow complexion that, in some cases, the Fuegian has been placed among the Black sections of the human species, i.e. amongst the Kelænonesians.