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

400 TRADITIONS — DELUGE — CHEM. Feb. tract of country, reaching from the Gulf of Ancud nearly to the river Bio-Bio, probably the finest district in all South America, is still kept by the brave Araucanians. These Indians are extremely superstitious, but in their rites there are curious customs, perhaps indicative of their origin. About Valdivia, whenever an aboriginal and heathen native dies, he is buried in a small canoe, with a scanty supply of provisions and chicha,* on the bank of a river which flows to the sea. Their idea is that the spirit goes by water to that place, in the direction of the setting sun, whence their remote ancestors came. Febres says, in his work before mentioned, that the island Mocha is the place meant : but if we reflect that Mocha is very small, only twenty miles from the main- land, and that when first discovered, early in the sixteenth century, it was inhabited by Indians who often crossed over to the continent, I think we must look much farther west for the place of departed souls to which these people refer. The aborigines who live near volcanoes offer propitiatory sacrifices to the evil spirit, Pillan, who is said to cause earth- quakes and eruptions. They sacrifice buUs and rams to him, besides offering fruit, vegetables, and chicha. On a mountain called Theghin, or Theg-theghin, (wliich means to crackle or sparkle like fire), these people say that their early progenitors escaped from the Deluge. There is a word in common use among them, meaning ' the great ancestor,' or ' our great ancestors, or ' the renowned,' wliich is hardly to be distinguished from Shem. Febres spells it ' Them,"' but, as the th is frequently pro- nounced, .it would sound like chem.-f- Can this be handed down from their ancestor of the Ark .'*]: Another word that attracted my notice particularly, was ' minga.' I have a note by me (unfortunately without the proper reference) remarking the resemblance of minga, not • Fermented liquor made from maize, apples, or other substances. t Molina, Hist. Civil de Chile. Vol. ii. p. 333. Falkner says that the Vuta Huilliche substitute t for ch, p. 99. J I am informed by Doctor Andrew Smith, that the word Ham is still common among the nations of southern Africa, as a distinguishing appellation,