Among some mountain tribes of South America, and especially in Chili, the
natives are remarkable for the size of their limbs, which are so large as to appear
out of proportion to the body; yet it is remarkable that the Americans seldom
attain a state of obesity.
Notwithstanding the general custom of going barefoot, the American Indians
possess remarkably small feet, and their hands have the same delicate conformation.
Most travellers have noticed this fact, which is a characteristic of the race p j yet
the Indian is generally stiff and awkward in his gait, owing to the prevalent habit
of walking with the feet turned inwards.
The unsophisticated Americans might be divided into three great classes,
derived from the pursuits on which they depend for subsistence, viz: Hunting,
Fishing, and Agriculture. The first and largest class is devoted to hunting; and
it embraces most of the strictly nomadic tribes, and of course a great proportion
of the entire race. The several Dacota nations west of the Mississippi, together
with the Upsarookas, the Assinaboins, the Black Feet, and many other nations
both east and west of the Rocky Mountains, cultivate nothing whatever. They
live upon the flesh of the buffalo, the deer, the bear, and various other animals;
and when these fail, they suffer all the privations resulting from famine and
disease.' In the southern continent, vast hordes now derive a ready and unfailing
subsistence from the wild cattle which overrun the extensive plains or pampas of
Brazil and Patagonia ;f and a few tribes now domesticate these animals, and thus
avoid the labor ofHhe chase and the lasso. Such are the Pehuenches of the
Chilian Andes, between the thirty-fourth and thirty-seventh degree of south
latitude. They dwell,' says Molina, in the manner of the Bedouin Arabs, in tents
made of skins, disposed in a circular form, leaving in the centre a spacious field,
where the cattle feed during the continuance of the herbage. When that begins
to fail, they transport their habitations to another situation, and in this manner
continually changing place, they traverse the valleys of the Cordilleras.^
In comparison with the hunting tribes, those which subsist exclusively by
fishing are not numerous; for among the many nations who inhabited the Atlantic
* De Azara, Voy. T. II,p. 32,58, 269.—P r. de Wied, Voy. au Bresil, art. Botocudy.—Molina,
Hist, of Chili, I, p. 276.—Humboldt, Voy. aux Reg. Equinox, III, p. 282.
tT h e domestic breed of cattle was first introduced into South-America by the Spaniard, and it
continues to increase beyond all calculation, notwithstanding the annual havoc made among these
animals for the purposes of- food and commerce,
% Hist of Chili, II, p. 224. ,
coast of America, the greater number made their means of support a secondary
consideration, some alternating it with agriculture, others with the chase*
Among the proper piscatory tribes, however, may be adduced the natives of Terra
j^el Fuego, and the Flathead nations of the Columbia river. Numerous tribes
unacquainted with agriculture; are sustained for a great part of the year by fishing
in the rivers and lakes; and in the interim between the ending and the recommencement
of the fishing season, are driven to the greatest extremities for food
sufficient for the purposes of life. Thus the Shoshones west of the Rocky
Mountains, live more than half the year on roots:alone; and the Ottomacs. of the
Orinoco are compelled for months together to assuage the cravings of nature by
mixing with their food a large proportion of unctuous clay.*
In connection with this Subject it may be remarked, that even the piscatory
tribes are wholly destitute of the spirit of maritime adventure, or even fondness
for the sea. Their boats are of the simplest construction, and in their fishing and
other aquatic excursions, they seldom intentionally lose sight of land.
A few tribes were strictly agricultural before the arrival of the Europeans,
but a much greater number have become so since. Among the former are the
nations who inhabit the plains and open land between th e1 Orinoco and the
Amazon, a region to which even the missionaries have hitherto been denied
admission.f In North America, the cultivation of the soil has been chiefly
restricted to the nations inhabiting the country between the great lakes and the
Gulf of Mexico, and between the Mississippi and the ocean) But even among
the most industrious of these tribes agriculture was pursued in a very elementary
manner, having been confined chiefly to the cultivation of maize or Indian corn,
the sweet potatoe,: melons and tobacco4 Among the Catholic missions in South
* “ The Ottomacs during some months eat daily three quarters of a pound of clay, slightly hardened
by thé fire, without their health being sensibly affected by it. They moisten the earth afresh when
they are going to swallow it. It has not been possible to verify-hitherto iwith precision how much
nutritious vegetable of animal matter the Indians take in a Week1 at the same time ; but it is certain
that they attribute the sensation of satiety which they feel to the clay, and not to the wretched aliments
which they occasionally take, with it.”—Humb. Pers. Nar. V, p. 643.
f Humboldt, Pers. Nar. I ll, p, 312.
t Gallatin, in Archseolog. Amer. II, p. 151,152.—It is remarked by this author that <*the
four millions of industrious inhabitants who, within less than forty years, have peopled bur western
states, and derive more than ample means of sübsistencè from the soil, offer the most striking contrast
when coni pared with perhaps one hundred thousand Indians whose place* they occupy.”— Loco citat.
p. 154.