Their Caciques or Ulmenes, as they call them, are generally chosen either for their superior valour or wisdom in speech—occasionally, but not always, the honour descends from father to son: they have but little authority in the tribe, except in time of war, when all submit implicitly to their direction.
They are not, however, entirely without laws and punishments for certain crimes, such as murder, adultery, theft, and witchcraft. Thus he who kills another is condemned to be put to death by the relations of the deceased, or to pay them a suitable compensation. The woman taken in adultery is also punishable with death by her husband, unless her relations can otherwise satisfy him. The thief is obliged to pay for what he is convicted of stealing; and, if he has not the means, his relations must pay for him. As to those accused of witchcraft, they are burnt alive with very little ceremony; and such executions are of frequent occurrence, inasmuch as a man rarely dies a natural death but it is ascribed to the machinations of some one in communication with the evil spirit. The relatives of the deceased, in their lamentations, generally denounce some personal enemy as having brought about his end, and little more is necessary to ensure his condemnation by the whole tribe: sometimes in his agony the unhappy victim names others as his accomplices, and, if the dead man be of any importance amongst them, they too are often sacrificed to his manes in the same barbarous manner.
As to their religion, they believe in a God, the creator and ruler of all things, though they have no form of worship: they also believe in the influence of an evil spirit, to whom they attribute any ill that befalls them. They consider that God has sent them into the world to do right or wrong as they please; that, when the body perishes, the soul becomes immortal, and flies to a place beyond the seas, where there is an abundance of all things, and where husbands and wives meet, and live happily together again.
On the occasion of their funerals, that they may want for nothing in the other world to which they have been used in this, their clothing and accoutrements, and arms, are buried with them; sometimes a stock of provisions is added; and when a Cacique is buried his horses are also slain and stuffed with straw, and set upright over his grave. The internment is conducted with more or less ceremony, according to the rank of the deceased:—if he be a man of weight amongst them, not only his relations, but all the principal persons of the tribe, assemble and hold a great drinking-bout over his grave, at which the more drink, the more honour.
They have great faith in dreams, especially in those of their ancients and Caciques, to whom they believe they are sent as revelations for the guidance of the tribe on important occasions; and they seldom undertake any affair, either of personal or general importance, without much consultation with their diviners and old women as to the omens which may have been observed.
Marriage is an expensive ceremony to the bridegroom, who if obliged to make rich presents, sometimes all he is worth, to the parents of his love, before he obtains their consent. Thus daughters are a source of sure wealth to their parents, whilst those who have only sons are often ruined by the assistance which is required from them on these occasions. Such as can afford it take more wives than one, but the first has always precedence in the household arrangements, and so on in succession.
When a child is born it is taken with the mother immediately to the nearest stream, in which after both are bathed, the mother returns to her household duties, and takes part in preparing for the feast that follows.
In almost all these habits, the Pehuenches appear to fellow the Araucanians, of whose manners and customs Molina has given a full account in his History of Chile.
The mother of one of my servants lived seven years amongst these savages, and confirmed Cruz's account on all the points I have here stated. In general, she said, she was as kindly treated by them as was possible under the circumstances:—she had been taken by the Pampas Indians, and by them sold to the Pehuenches, that she might have less chance of escaping and ever reaching her own home again. Men, women, and children, she said, lived much more on horseback than on foot.
A knowledge of their language might assist much to make us better acquainted with their country, for their nomenclature of places, as well as of persons, is rarely insignificant. I have already stated that the Pehuenches derive their name from pehuen, the pine-tree, which abounds on the slopes of the Cordillera where they dwell. The Ranqueles are so called from ranquel, the thistle, which covers the plains which they inhabit. The Picunches take their name from picun, the north. The Puelches signify the people to the east, and the Huilliches those to the south: che means people.