It Is With This Plant
That The Indians Make Their Chuzos, Or Long Tapering Spears.
Our Resting-House Was So Dirty That I Preferred Sleeping
Outside:
On these journeys the first night is generally very
uncomfortable, because one is not accustomed to the tickling
and biting of the fleas.
I am sure, in the morning, there
was not a space on my legs the size of a shilling which had
not its little red mark where the flea had feasted.
12th. - We continued to ride through the uncleared forest;
only occasionally meeting an Indian on horseback, or a troop
of fine mules bringing alerce-planks and corn from the southern
plains. In the afternoon one of the horses knocked up:
we were then on a brow of a hill, which commanded a fine
view of the Llanos. The view of these open plains was very
refreshing, after being hemmed in and buried in the wilderness
of trees. The uniformity of a forest soon becomes very
wearisome. This west coast makes me remember with pleasure
the free, unbounded plains of Patagonia; yet, with the
true spirit of contradiction, I cannot forget how sublime is
the silence of the forest. The Llanos are the most fertile
and thickly peopled parts of the country, as they possess the
immense advantage of being nearly free from trees. Before
leaving the forest we crossed some flat little lawns, around
which single trees stood, as in an English park: I have often
noticed with surprise, in wooded undulatory districts, that
the quite level parts have been destitute of trees. On account
of the tired horse, I determined to stop at the Mission
of Cudico, to the friar of which I had a letter of introduction.
Cudico is an intermediate district between the forest
and the Llanos. There are a good many cottages, with
patches of corn and potatoes, nearly all belonging to Indians.
The tribes dependent on Valdivia are "reducidos y cristianos."
The Indians farther northward, about Arauco and
Imperial, are still very wild, and not converted; but they
have all much intercourse with the Spaniards. The padre
said that the Christian Indians did not much like coming
to mass, but that otherwise they showed respect for religion.
The greatest difficulty is in making them observe the ceremonies
of marriage. The wild Indians take as many wives
as they can support, and a cacique will sometimes have more
than ten: on entering his house, the number may be told by
that of the separate fires. Each wife lives a week in turn
with the cacique; but all are employed in weaving ponchos,
etc., for his profit. To be the wife of a cacique, is an honour
much sought after by the Indian women.
The men of all these tribes wear a coarse woolen poncho:
those south of Valdivia wear short trousers, and those north
of it a petticoat, like the chilipa of the Gauchos. All have
their long hair bound by a scarlet fillet, but with no other
covering on their heads.
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