"AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS."

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1187, 18 May 1872, Page 4

"AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS."

Mr Musters comes before the public with excellent credentials. He is the first English traveller who has lived with the Tehuelches, and shared in their sports, privations, and dangers, for the sole purpose of seeing an unknown land, and of gaining an acquaintance with the wandering tribes by whom it is sparsely occupied. Such an adventure, full of peril and involving no common hardships, demanded the highest endurance, courage, and sagacity, and these traveller's virtues appear to have been possessed by Mr Musters. He acquired the habits of the Indians, and exhited the strength and dexterity which are so highly valued by them. He minted his face and body after the fashion of the country, and found the custom useful as a preservative from chapped skin md from the heat of the bun ; lie allowed himself to be tattooed Aby a fair enslaver ;" he learned how to " ball" the ostrich and guanaco, how to go a long period without food, and excited the admiration of the Indians by the skill with which he broke in an untamed horse, or joined in the dance in full costume of ostrich feathers and girdle of bells. Mr Musters made no objection to the food of the country, He found the meat of the guanaco excellent and ostrich eggs nutritions, acquired quite a taste for horseflesh, ate armadillos with satisfaction, and advisos all travellers "to boil their puma." Nor was he wholly insensible to the charms of the ladies, and confesses to have been nearly inveigled into matrimony by a Patagonian beauty : — "A fair young Indian, whose haircut across the iorehead denoted widowhood, moreover having several mares and considerable possessions, to whom I had perhaps paid some slight attention, proposed that I should set up toldo with her. This was quite out of my programme of the journey, but inasmuch as the alliance might prove useful as well as agreeable, and feeling lonely in absence of any particular friend, I half agreed ; bo a gobetween was despatched to arrange the dowry, and it was settled that I should give a revolver in exchange for two horses, to be provided by the fair one's friends. However, the evening before the happy day on which we were to have been united the alarm came, and as she belonged to the Southern Indians, I thought better of giving up my arms, ro I assigned as a reason for withdrawing from the bargain that I did not wish to leave my friend Orkiki's toldo. 1 have no doubt that her people, desiring the help of my firearms, had suggested the match to secure me to support their side. |The lady at firat was rather disgusted, but soon got over it, and we remained on oor former friendly terms." The Tehuelche women are represented as modest and attractive, and as having quite as great an aptitude for flirtation as their more civilised sisters. A hateful fashion, common of late in Europe, appears to be not unknown in Patagonia, for Mr Musters lolls us how greatly he admired a 3'oung lady's hair, and how disappointed he was, on meeting, her one day, to find " that she had taken her spare hair off, and her natural locks were the reverse of long." The hair of the men in Patagonia is generally longer than that of the women, and they take great care of it, " making their wives or other female relatives brush it out carefully at least once a day." On the other hand the men wear neither eyebrows, beard, nor moustaches, and pull out every hair from their face with silver tweezers. Mr Musters was often urged to undergo the same operation, but declined to comply with the advice. The habits of the Patagonians contrast very favorably with those of most barbarous or semi-barbarous tribes. Their sense of decency is very strong, so also is their love of cleanliness Men and women bathe every morning, '• scrupulously apart and generally before daylight," and when they can obtain soap they use it freely. While in camp the v.omnn make up skin mantles, sewing with untiring energy, while the men work ■'... silver and iron, or make saddles, which ..ey frequently gamble away. Mr Musters • liinks that, so far from being gluttonous, hey eht less th n civilised people. When ::ot under the infinence of liquor— a cuts.--i flowed on them by Englishmen — they are friondly and good-tempered, although naturally suspicious of strangers ; and the writer observes that perhaps the finest

trait is their love for their wives and children. "Matrimonial disputes are rare, and wife-beating unknown, and the intense grief with which the loss of a wiie is mourned is certainly not civilised, for the widower will destroy all his stock and burn all his possessions." Children, too, are treated with the utmost indulgence, ride the best horses, and are not corrected for their faults. It is tho delusion of some Englishmen, a delusion strengthened perhaps by Mrs Norton's song, that the desert Arab is kind to his horse ; but the Tehueicho Indian is really , fond of the animal on which ho depends for food and life. And the horse appreciates tbe treatment he receives. The smallest children can mount racors which show signs of fear and temper when approached by a white man. "Indeed, there appears to be a sort of instinctive mutual bond between the Indians and their horses. Hunting is of course the common employment of the Indians, and racing is their pastime. The horses, which are entirely grass fed, possess great speed and endurance. . The Northern Indians will ride at full speed down the most precipitous places, but they guard against danger by placing hide shoes on their horses' fore feet.