i :
146 CLOTHING ARMOUR.
Maria,* once persuaded some of her companions to go with her
to the Falkland islands, in a vessel commanded by Mr. Matthew
Brisbane. They went, staid there some weeks, and returned in
the same vessel, highly delighted by all the novelties, excepting
sea-sickness. The chief wizard of the tribe was one of the
party. IVIaria was then a person of much consequence, being
almost their only interpreter, and the wife of a principal person.
Her own history must be curious : she was horn at Asuncion,
in Paraguay; and has a son who is a cacique.
The mantles are curiously painted, usually on one side only,
but some have had the hair rubbed off and are painted on
both sides. They are very neatly sewed together with thread
made out of the split sinews of ostriches, which is the strongest
and most durable material they can procure. Making mantles
is one of the occupations of the women. The paint used is
found on the hills: it is an earthy substance, of various colours.
Moistened with water, and made into the shape of crayons,
pieces of this substance are dried in the sun; and when used,
one end of the crayon is dipped in water and rubbed on the
part to he coloured. These mantles are tied about the neck,
and usually round the middle, by sinew cords. Often the upper
part is dropped, and the body left quite exposed above the
waist, and while in active exercise on horseback, this is usually
the case, if the mantle is not then entirely discarded. This
substantial substitute for clothing is made with skins of the
animals of their country; and among those of guanaco, puma,
fox, skunk (a kind of weasel or polecat), cavy, dog, otter, seal,
and colt, the most esteemed are the small grey fox skins.
A kind of ‘ maro’ is sometimes worn by the men; and their
boots, I have already said, are made out of the hock part of
the skins of mares’ and colts’ legs. After being cleaned from
fat, or membranous substances, dried, and then made pliable
with grease, these ready-shaped hoots require neither sewing
nor soles. Wooden substitutes for spurs are worn, if iron cannot
be procured.
For warlike purposes the men clothe themselves in three of
♦ Frequently mentioned by Captain King in vol. i.
ARMOUR ARMS. 147 H i i . Iii '
their thickest mantles: the two outer ones have no hair, but
are gaily painted: all three are worn like ponchos. On their
heads they then wear conical caps, made of hide; and surmounted
by a tuft of ostrich feathers. Another kind of armour,
worn by those who can get it, is a broad-brimmed hat, or helmet,
made of a doubled bull’s hide: and a tunic, or frock, with a
high collar, and short sleeves, made of several hides sewed together
; sometimes of anta skins, but always of the thickest and
most solid they can procure. I t is very heavy, strong enough
to resist arrows or lances, and to deaden the blow of a stone
ball (bola perdida) ; hut it will not turn the bullet fired from
a musket. Some say that it will do so, but that which I saw
had been pierced through, in the thickest part, by the musket-
ball which killed the wearer. When obliged to fight on foot,
they use a shield made of hides sewed together (clypeus sepr
templex).
Their arms are balls (bolas), lances, bows and arrows, clubs,
and swords when they can get them. But in hasty, unforeseen
skirmishes, they engage in as light order as the more
northern Indians, without head-cover or mantle, stripped to
their spurs, and armed only with lances and balls; which latter
they are never without.
The balls, bowls, or bolas, called by themselves ‘ somai,’ are
two or three round stones, lumps of earth hardened, iron or
copper ore, or lead. I f made of earth or clay, the material is
enclosed in small bags of green (fresh) hide, which, placed in the
sun, contract so much, that they become like stones in hardness;
but these clay balls are not used by the Patagonians so much
as by the Pampa Indians, in whose country stones or metals
are so scarce that there probably the last-mentioned balls were
invented. Two balls, connected by a thong of hide, two, three,
or four yards in length, ai'e called ‘ somai.’ Three such balls,
connected by thongs, equal to one another in length, with their
inner ends united, are called ‘ achico.’ Taking one baU in the
right hand, the other two are whirled around several times,
and the whole then thrown at the object to be entangled.
There are also balls of less weight and size, made of marble,
o
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L ii