Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1899 — GIANTS OF PATAGONIA. [ARTICLE]

GIANTS OF PATAGONIA.

The Tehnelches Average But Little Under Six Feet. The tribes to the east of the Cordilleras, in southern Patagonia, belong to Araucanian stock, and are a superior race, says the Boston Transcript. The Tehuelches—as they call themselves—of southern and eastern Patagonia are the people tvhose unusual stature gave rise to the fables of early days to the effect that the natives of this region were giants, averaging nine or ten feet in height. It is a fact they are the tallest human beings in the world, the men averaging but slightly less than six feet, while individuals of four to six inches above that mark are not uncommon. They are in reality by no means savages, but somewhat civilized barbarians. They arc almost unacquainted with the use of firearms, notwithstanding some contact with the whites, but they have plenty of horses and dogs. Unsurpassed hunters, they capture the guanaco and the rhea, or Sopth American ostrich, and from the skins of these and other animals they make clothes and coverings for their tents. Thej’ make beautiful “capes’’ or mantles, of fur and feathers, which are highly prized by Europeans and find a ready market, most of the proceeds being spent for bad: whisky, which is brought into the country in quantities by traders.