The Puelches or eastern people, which name they receive from the natives of Chili, are bounded on the west by the Moluches, on the south by the Straits of Magellan, on the east by the sea, and on the north by the Spaniards. They are subdivided into four tribes, the Taluhets, Diuihets, Chechehets, and Tehuelhets. The first of these or Taluhets, are a wandering race who prowl over the country, from the eastern side of the first desaguadero as far as the lakes of Guanacache in the jurisdiction of San Juan and San Luiz de la Punta. Some of them are also to be found in the jurisdiction of Cordova, on the rivers Segundo Terzo and Quarto. When the Jesuits were expelled from the missions, this tribe could scarcely raise two hundred fighting men, and even in conjunction with all their allies not above five hundred. The second of these tribes, called the Diuihets, is, also a wandering race, which borders westwardly on the Pehuenches, between the latitudes of 35° and 38° S. They extend along the rivers Sanguel Colorado and Hueyque, and nearly to the Casuhati on the east. This nation and that of the Taluhets are collectively called Pampas by the Spaniards, whose settlements in Tacuman and on the southern shore of the La Plata they have always infested, and sometimes even endangered. The third tribe of the Puelches is named the Chechehets, or eastern-people. The country which they chiefly frequent is situated between the rivers Hueyque and the first desaguadero or Rio Colorado, and from thence to the second desaguadero or Rio Negro. They are a tall and stout wandering race resembling the Patagonians, but speak a quite different language. Their dispositions are friendly and inoffensive, but they are a bold and active enemy when provoked. They are now reduced to a small number by the ravages of the small-pox. The fourth race, called the Tehuelhets, or in their own language the Tehuel-kunnees or southern-men, are the real Patagonians. These are again subdivided into many tribes, all of which and the Chechehets also are called Serranos or mountaineers by the Spaniards. The Leuvuches, who seem to be the head tribe of all the Serranos, live on the Rio Negro. They speak the same language with the Chechehets, but with a small mixture of the Tehuel. This tribe used to keep on good terms with the Spaniards, that they might hunt in security in the pampas or immense plains of Buenos Ayres. About the year 1740, however, they were provoked to war by a most wanton and treacherous attack, and Buenos Ayres would in all probability have been destroyed, had not these injured people been appeased by the Jesuit missionaries. The Tehuelhets are more numerous than all the other tribes of these parts together, and are the perpetual enemies of the Moluches who are so terrible to the Spaniards, whom they would have long since destroyed if they had been equally well supplied with horses.
To the south of these are the Chulilau-Kunnees, and the Sehuan-Kunnees, who are the most southerly of the equestrian tribes. The country beyond them, all the way to the Straits of Magellan, is possessed by the last of the Tehuel tribes, called Yacana-Kunnees or foot-people, as they have no horses. These are an inoffensive race, who are very swift runners, and subsist mostly on fish. The other Tehuelhets and the Huilliches sometimes attack this tribe for the purpose of making slaves of the prisoners. The ordinary stature of all the Tehuel tribes is from six to seven feet. None of the Puelches either keep sheep or cultivate the ground, but depend altogether on hunting, for which purpose they keep a great number of dogs.
The belief in an infinite number of spirits, good and evil, is common to all the native tribes south of the Rio Plata. From the north of that river to the Orinoco a different language prevails, accompanied by a different form of superstition The Puelches do not appear to acknowledge any of those numerous spirits as supreme over the rest. The Taluhets and Diuihets call a good spirit Soychu, or he who presides in the land of strong drink. The Tehuelhets call an evil spirit Atskanna Kanatz, the other Puelches denominate the same being Valichu. Huecuvu must be another name for the evil spirit; as the Chechehets give the name of Huecuvu-mapu or the devils-country to a great sandy desert, into which they never venture lest they should be overwhelmed.
Among the northern Indians, each cast or small tribe is distinguished by the name of some animal; as the tribe of the tyger, the lion, the guanaco, the ostrich, and the like. They believe that each tribe had its own particular creator, who resided in some huge cavern under a lake or bill, to which all of that tribe will go after death, to enjoy the felicity of eternal inebriation. These good creative spirits, according to their opinion, having first created the world, made the different races of men and animals, each in their respective cave. To the Indians, they gave the spear, the bow and arrow, and the lague or ball and thong: to the Spaniards fire arms. Animals they allege were likewise created in these subterranean abodes of the spirits, such as were nimblest coming first out. When bulls and cows were coming out last of all, the Indians were frightened at the sight of their horns, and stopped up the mouth of their cavern; but the Spaniards were wiser and let them out. Thus they explain the reason why they had no cattle till after the coming of the Spaniards. In. their opinion, all the animals who have been created in these hidden caverns have not yet emerged. They attribute all the misfortunes or diseases which happen to men or animals to the agency of the evil spirits, who are continually wandering about the world in search of mischief. Their priests or jugglers rather, are each supposed to be attended by two familiar evil spirits, to whom the souls of these jugglers are associated after death, and with whom they go about to do mischief. The jugglers are of both sexes; but it seems as if it were thought an occupation beneath the dignity of a man, as the male wizards are compelled to dress like women and are not permitted to marry. The female jugglers are under no such restriction. They are generally chosen while children to be initiated in the mysteries of this profession, from among those who are most effeminate, and such as happen to be subject to epilepsy or St Vitus' dance are considered as especially marked out for the service of the jugglers. It is a very dangerous profession, as these jugglers are frequently put to death when any calamity happens to befal either the chiefs or the people.
No ceremonies are performed in honour of the good spirits. That which is addressed to the evil ones is performed in the following manner. The assistants assemble in the hut or tent of the wizard, who is concealed in a corner of the tent, where he has a drum, one or two round calabashes with a few small sea shells in them to make a noise, like the maraca or rattle of the Brazilian sorcerers, and some square bags of painted hide in which he keeps his spells. He begins the ceremony by making a strange noise with his drum and rattle, after which he feigns to fall into a fit, which is supposed to be occasioned by a struggle with the evil spirit who then enters into him. During this fit, he keeps his eye-lids lifted up, distorts his features, foams at the mouth, seems to dislocate his joints, and after many violent and unnatural motions remains stiff and motionless, like a person in a fit of epilepsy. After some time he comes to himself, as if having gained the victory over the evil spirit. He next causes a faint shrill mournful voice to be heard within his tabernacle, as of the evil spirit, who is supposed to acknowledge himself vanquished; after which the wizard, from a kind of tripod, answers all questions that are put to him. It is of little consequence whether these answers turn out true or false, as on all sinister events the fault is laid on the spirit. On these conjuring occasions, the juggler is well paid by those who consult the destinies.
These southern nations make skeletons of their dead, as is done likewise by the native tribes on the Orinoco; but it is singular that this practice does not prevail among the intermediate tribes, that inhabit between the Maranon and Rio Plata. On such occasions, one of the most distinguished women of the tribe performs the ceremony of dissection. The entrails are burnt, and the bones, after the flesh has been cut off as clean as possible, are buried till the remaining fibres decay. This is the custom of the Molnuches and Pampas, but the Serranos place the bones on a high frame-work of canes or twigs to bleach in the sun and rain. While the dissector is at work on the skeleton, the Indians walk incessantly round the tent, having their faces blackened with soot, dressed in long skin mantles, singing in a mournful voice, and striking the ground with their long spears, to drive away the evil spirits. Some go to condole with the widow and relations of the dead, if these are wealthy enough to reward them for their mourning with bells, beads, and other trinkets; as their customary condolence is not of a nature to be offered gratuitously, for they prick their arms and legs with thorns, and feel pain at least if not sorrow. The horses belonging to the deceased are slain, that he may ride upon them in the alhue-mapu, or country of the dead; but a few of these are reserved to carry his bones to the place of sepulchre, which is done in grand ceremony within a year after his death. They are then packed up in a hide, and laid on the favourite horse of the deceased, which is adorned with mantles, feathers, and other ornaments and trinkets. In this manner the cavalcade moves to the family burial-place, often three hundred leagues from the place of death, so wide and distant are their wanderings in the boundless plains to the south of the Rio Plata.
The Moluches and Pampas bury in large square pits about six feet deep, the bones being first accurately put into their proper places and tied together, clothed in the best robes of the deceased, and ornamented with beads and feathers, all of which are cleaned or changed once a-year. These skeletons are placed in a sitting posture in a row, with all the weapons and other valuables belong to each laid beside him. The pit is then covered over with beams or twigs, on which the earth is spread. An old matron of each tribe is appointed to the care of these sepulchres, who has to open them once a-year, to clean and new clothe the skeletons, for which service she is held in great estimation. The bodies of the slain horses are placed round the sepulchre, raised on their feet and supported by stakes. These sepulchres are generally at a small distance from the ordinary habitations of the tribe. Every year they pour upon them some bowls of their first made chica, or fermented liquor, and drink to the happiness of the dead. The Tehuelhets and other southern tribes carry their dead to a great distance from their ordinary dwellings, into the desert near the sea-coast, where they arrange them above ground surrounded by their horses. It is probable that only those Indians who carry their dead to considerable distances reduce them to skeletons, from the following circumstance. In the voyage of discovery made in 1746 in the St Antonio from Buenos Ayres to the Straits of Magellan, the Jesuits who accompanied the expedition found one of these tents or houses of the dead. On one side six banners of cloth of various colours, each about half a yard square, were set up on high poles fixed in the ground; and on the other side five dead horses stuffed with straw and supported, on stakes. Within the house, there were two ponchos extended, on which lay the bodies of two men and a woman, having the flesh and hair still remaining. On the top of the house was another poncho, rolled up and tied with a coloured woolen band, in which a pole was fixed, from which eight tassels of wool were suspended.
Widows are obliged to observe a long and rigorous mourning. During a whole year after the death of their husbands, they must keep themselves secluded in the tents, never going out except on the most necessary avocations, and having no communication with any one. In all this time, they must abstain from eating the flesh of horses, cows, ostriches, or guanacos, must never wash their faces which are constantly smeared with soot, and any breach of chastity during this year of mourning is punished with the death of both parties by the relations of the husband.
The office of ya, or chief, is hereditary, and all the sons of a ya may be chiefs likewise if they can procure followers; but the dignity is of so little consequence that nobody almost covets the office. To him belongs the office of protecting his followers, of composing differences, and of delivering up any offender who is to be capitally punished; in all which, cases his will is the sole law. These petty despots are prone to bribery, and will readily sacrifice their vassals and even their kindred for a good bribe. They are esteemed in proportion to their eloquence, and any chief who is not himself eloquent employs an orator to harangue the tribe in his place. When two or more tribes form an alliance against a common enemy, they elect an apo, or commander-in-chief, from the ablest or most celebrated of the yas, or hereditary chiefs. But this office, though nominally elective, has been long hereditary among the southern tribes in the family of Cangapol. The hereditary chiefs, named yas, elmens, or ulmens, have no power to take any thing from their vassals, neither can they oblige them to perform any work without payment. On the contrary they must treat them kindly and relieve their wants, or their vassals will put themselves under the protection of a more generous chief. Many of them therefore wave the privilege of their birth, and decline having any vassals, because they are expensive appendages, which yield little profit. But every-one must attach themselves to some chief, or they would undoubtedly be put to death or reduced to slavery.
Every man buys his wife from her relations, with or without her consent, and then takes possession of her as his property. But if the woman happens to have fixed her affections on another, she contrives to wear out the patience of her purchaser, who either turns her away or sells her to the man of her choice, but seldom uses her ill. Widows, and orphan girls are at their own disposal. The yas or ulmens have generally two or three wives; and even the common people may have as many as they please, but wives are dear and they are generally contented with one. The lives of the women are one continued series of labour. They fetch wood and water; dress the victuals; make, mend, and clean the tents; cure the skins; make them into mantles; spin and manufacture ponchos; pack up every thing for a journey, even the tent poles; load, unload, and arrange the baggage; straiten the girths of the horses; carry the lance before their husbands; and at the end of the journey set up the tents. Sickness or even the most advanced pregnancy give no relief from these labours, and it would be reckoned ignominious in the husbands to give them any assistance. The women of noble families may have slaves to relieve them of these labours; but when in want of these, must undergo the same fatigues as the rest. Yet the tribes of the southern extremity of America are not brutal to their women like those in the north, and the marriages only endure during pleasure, though those who have children seldom separate. The husband invariably protects his wife, even when in the wrong; and if detected in any criminal intercourse, all his anger falls upon the paramour, who is cruelly beaten, unless he can atone for the injury by payment. Their jugglers sometimes persuade them to send their wives into the woods, to prostitute themselves to the first person they meet, which is obviously a device for consoling themselves from the celibacy to which they are condemned. The husbands readily obey these directions; but there are women in whom native modesty overpowers superstition, who refuse obedience to their husbands on such occasions, and bid defiance to the wizard.