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86' BY ZAN T E— MAHIA. May 1827.
ligible, Spanish, and stated herself to be sister of Bysante, the
cacique of a tribe near the Santa Cruz River, who is an important
personage, on account of his size (which Mai’ia described
to be immense), and his riches. In speaking of him, she said
he was very rich ; he had many mantles, and also many hides
(“ muy rico, tiene muchas mantas y también muchos cueros”).
One of Maria’s companions, a brother of Bysante, was the
tallest and largest man of this tribe; and though he only
measured six feet in height, his body was large enough for a
much taller man. He was in great affliction; his daughter
had died only two days before our arrival; but, notwithstanding
his sad story, which soon found him friends, it was not
long before he became quite intoxicated, and began to sing
and roar on the subject of his misfortunes, with a sound more
like the bellowing of a bull than the voice of a human being.
Upon applying to Maria, who was not quite so tipsy as her
brother, to prevent him from making such hideous noises, she
laughed and said, “ Oh, never mind, he’s drunk; poor fellow,
his daughter is dead” (Es boracho, povrecito, murió su hija);
and then, assuming a serious tone, she looked towards the sky,
and muttered in her own language a sort of prayer or invocation
to their chief demon, or ruling spirit, whom Pigafetta, the
companion and historian of Magalhaens, called Setebos, which
Admiral Burney supposes to have been the original of one of
Shakspeare’s names in the “ Tempest”—
his a rt is of such power
He would controul my dam’s god Setehos.” *
Maria’s dress was similar to that of other females of the
tribe; but she wore ear-rings, made of medals stamped with a
figure of the Virgin Mary, which, with the brass-pin that
secured her mantle across her breast, were given to her by one
Lewis, who had passed by in an American sealing-vessel, and
who, we understood from her, had made them “ Christians.”
The Jesuit Falkner, who lived among them for many years,
has written a long and, apparently, a very authentic account
* Burney, i. 35 and 37.
of the inhabitants of the countries south of the River Plata,
and he describes those who inhabit the borders of the Strait
and sea-coast to be, “ Yacana-cunnees, which signifies foot-
people, for they have no horses in their country ; to the north
they border on the Sehuau-cunnees, to the west on the Key-
yus, or Key-yuhues, from whom they are divided by a ridge
of mountains ; to the east they are bounded by the ocean ;
and to the south by the islands of Tierra del Fuego, or the
South Sea. These Indians live near the sea on both sides of
the Strait, and often make war with one another. They make
use of light floats, like those of Childe, in order to pass the
Straits, and are sometimes attacked by the Huilliches and ot er
Tehuelhets, who carry them away for slaves, as they haw
nothing to lose but their liberty and their lives. They subsist
chiefly on fish, which they catch either by diving, or striking
them with their darts. They are very nimble afoot, and catch
guanacoes and ostriches with their bowls. Their stature is
much the same as that of the other Tehuelhets, rarely exceeding
seven feet, and oftentimes not six feet. They are an innocent,
harmless people.” * , o i
To the north of this race, Falkner describes “ the Sehuau-
cunnees, the most southern Indians who travel on horseback ;
Sehuau signifies in the Tehuel dialect a species of black rabbit,
about the size of a field rat ; and as their country abounds
in these animals, their name may be derived from thence :
cunnee signifying ‘ people.’ ”
With the exception of their mode of killing the guanaco by
howls, or balls, the description of the Key-yus would apply
better to the Fuegian Indians ; and if so, they have been
driven across the Strait, and confined to the Fuegian shores by
the Sehuau-cunnees, who must be no other than Maria s tribe.
The Key-yus, who are described to inhabit the northern shore
of the Strait, between Peckett’s Harbour and Madre de Dios,
are probably the tribe found about the south-western islands,
and now called Alikhoolip ; whilst the eastern Fuegians, or
Yacana-cunnees, who have also been turned off the conti-
• Fa lk n e r’s Patagonia, pp. 110, 111.