Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

< SUPERSTITIONS. 161 painted upon them : perhaps rough imitations of the cards used by the Spaniards ; but this may be doubted. According to Falkner, the native of Patagonia is a super- stitious polytheist. I cannot add to, nor have I reason to doubt his account ; and shall therefore repeat what he says on this subject, abridging it slightly. " The Indians imagine that there is a multiplicity of deities, some good, others evil. At the head of the good deities is Guayara-kunny, or the lord of the dead. The chief evil agent is called Atskannakanatz, or Valichu. This latter name is applied to every evil demon.* " They think that the good deities have habitations in vast caverns under the earth, and that when an Indian dies his soul goes to live with the deity who presides over his particular family. " They believe that their good deities made the world, and that they first created the Indians in the subterranean caverns above mentioned ; gave them the lance, the bow and arrows, and the balls, to fight and hunt with, and then turned them out to shift for themselves. They imagine that the deities of the Spaniards created them in a similar manner, but that, instead of lances, bows, &c., they gave them guns and swords. They say that when the beasts, birds, and lesser animals were created, those of the more nimble kind came immediately out of the caverns ; but that the bulls and cows being the last, the Indians were so frightened at the sight of their horns, that they stopped the entrances of their caves with great stones. This is the grave reason they give why they had no black cattle in their country, till the Spaniards brought them over ; who, more wisely, had let them out of their caves. * The Patagonians call the good deity the Creator of all things, but consider him as one who afterwards has no concern about them. He is styled by some Soucha, or chief in the land of strong drink ; by others, Guayara-kunny, or lord of the dead. The evil principle is called Hue- covoe, or the wanderer without. Other spirits are supposed to take care of particular people — protect their own and injure others : they are called Valichu. — Pennant, p. 61. VOL. II. M