Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/743

Rh CHILIAN TRIBES.] AMERICA 701 of the mountains are tall ; and one tribe, the Tehuels or Patagonians, surpass in size every other nation in the world. All the tribes inhabiting the plains, except those of the extreme south, now make use of horses. The com plexion of the Chilian tribes is, like that of the other American nations, a reddish brown ; but one tribe is said to be of a clear red and white. They do not paint their bodies. The Chilians lived partly by hunting, but chiefly by agriculture, before they had any intercourse with Europeans. They cultivated maize, magu, guegen, tuca, quinoa, the potato, pumpkins, and some species of pulse; and to these they added, as food, the flesh of the biz- cacho, and of the llama or Araucanian camel, of whose wool they are said to have manufactured cloth. Like the Peruvians,, they understood the use of manure, prac tised irrigation with considerable skill, and turned up the ground with a wooden spade or mattock. They boiled their grain in earthen pots, or brayed it into meal after roasting it in hot sand ; of the meal they made puddings or bread, which they knew how to leaven, and various species of fermented drink. They had gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead, procured probably by washing ; but they seem to have had few or no edge-tools of metal, those found being almost always of basalt. They made baskets and mats, extracted salt from sea-water, and were able to give various dyes to their cloths. They used quipus or knotted cords for calculation, and, according to Mr Stevenson, for the transmission of intelligence and for recording events. They lived in villages formed of houses standing at a distance from one another, under hereditary chiefs, but whose power was limited. It is remarkable that the Chinese mode of catching Avild ducks on the rivers, by covering the fisher s head with a gourd, was practised in Chili. The Araucanians, the most intelligent, improved, and warlike of the Chilian tribes, occupy about 200 miles of the sea-coast, between the 37th and 39th parallels. They are of ordinary stature, but vigorously formed ; bold, hardy, hospitable, faithful to their engagements, generous to a fallen enemy, ardent, intrepid, and enthusiastic lovers of liberty. Their vices are drunkenness, and a contempt of other nations, springing from pride. Their govern ment, in the regularity of its form and its sub-division of authority, has an out-ward resemblance to the Peruvian ; but the spirit of the two systems differs as widely as the genius of the two nations. Araucania contains four tetrarchies, under four toquis or princes, who are inde pendent of one another, but confederated for their joint security against foreign enemies. Each tetrarchy is divided into five provinces, ruled by five chiefs called apo- ulmen; and each province into nine districts, governed by as many ulmen, who are subject to the apo-ulmen, as the latter are to the toquis. These various chiefs (who all bear the title of ulmen, as our nobility of all orders are barons) compose the aristocracy of the country. They hold their dignities by hereditary descent in the male line, and in the order of primogeniture. The supreme power of each tetrarchy resides in a diet or great coun cil of the ulmen, who assemble annually in a large plain, like the Poles and Germans in old times; but as the people are all armed, and have a high love of liberty, no resolution of the diet is of any avail if it has not their hearty concurrence. The chiefs, indeed, are little more than leaders in war ; for the right of private revenge, which is fully admitted, limits their authority in judicial mat ters; and they receive no taxes. Their laws are merely primeval usages. The Araucanians can raise altogether 0000 or 7000 men, besides a body of reserve. When war is declared by the great council, messengers bearing &quot; ar rows dipt in blood&quot; are sent to all parts of the country to summon the men to arms. Unlike many barbarous nations, which are immovably attached to their ancient cus toms, the Araucanians were not slow in copying the mili tary arts and tactics of the Spaniards. Their troops now consist of infantry and cavalry ; the former armed with pikes or clubs, the latter with swords and lances. The infantry are formed into regiments of ten companies, each company containing a hundred men. When they take the field, they cariy parched meal with them for provisions ; they station sentinels, send out scouts, and have advanced guards preceding their main body. When necessary for their security, they dig ditches, and plant stakes along their sides, and throw up mounds of earth. They advance to battle in lines, well formed, and fight with intrepidity. Their history affords a brilliant example of what a brave nation, animated by an enthusiastic love of liberty, can accomplish under the greatest disadvantages. After re sisting the best troops and the best generals of Spain for two hundred years, they at last compelled their proud enemies to acknowledge their independence. The Arau canians were indebted for their success to a deliberate species of courage, to which even the bravest of the North American tribes are strangers ; and they combined with it a degree of sagacity and intelligence which led them to adapt their mode of fighting to the new circumstances in which they were placed. Experience having taught them the inefficiency of their old missiles when opposed to musket balls, they soon laid aside their bows, and armed them selves with spears, swords, or other weapons fitted for close combat. Their practice was to advance rapidly within such a distance of the Spaniards as would not leave them time to reload after firing. Here they received without shrinking a volley, which was certain to destroy a number of them, and then rushing forward in a close column, fought their enemies hand to hand. In this way they gained many victories, and impressed the Spaniards with such a respect for their courage that an individual of that nation made their achievements the subject of an epic poem. Combining the moral, intellectual, and physi cal qualities of the Araucanians, they were certainly the finest native race in the New World. They had nearly all the germs of civilisation which belonged to the Mexi cans and Peruvians, without the ferocity of the former, the apathy of the latter, or the slavish habits common to both ; and without having their minds stupified by that grovel ling superstition which the rulers of these two nations seem to have considered as the only secure foundation of their authority. In true courage, in manliness and energy of character, they take precedence of all the American nations. The Araucanians believe in a supreme being, and in many subordinate spirits, good and bad. They believe also in omens and divination, but they have neither temples nor idols, nor religious rites ; and discover upon the whole so little aptitude for the reception of religious ideas that the Catholic missionaries who have settled among them have had very little success in imbuing their minds with a knowledge of Christianity. They believe in a future state, and have a confused tradition respecting a deluge, from which some persons were saved on a high mountain. They divide the year into twelve months of 30 days, which have significant names, and add five clays by intercalation. They esteem poetry and eloquence, but can scarcely be induced to learn reading or writing. Chess, a game of oriental origin, is said to have been known among them from time immemorial; and it may be further observed, that the numbers 5 and 9, employed in their geographical and civil divisions, are favourite num bers in China. The other Chilian tribes are all much behind the Arau-