THE CIVIL HISTORY OF CHILI. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Of the Origin, Appearance and Language THE origin of the primitive inhabitants of Chili, like that of the other American nations, is involved in impenetrable obscurity; nor have they any records, or monuments of antiquity, that can serve to elucidate so interesting an inquiry. Upon the arrival of the Spaniards they were entirely unacquainted with the art of writing, and their traditionary ac counts are so crude and imperfect, that they afford not the least degree of rational information to the inquisitive mind. Many of the inhabitants suppose that they are indigenous to the country, while others derive their origin from a foreign stock, and at one time say that their ancestors came from the north, and at another time, from the west. It is a general opinion that America was settled from the north-eastern part of Asia, from the supposed easy communication between them, in consesequence of the vicinity of these countries. But the opinion entertained by the Chilians, that their country was peopled from the west, is not so extravagant as at first sight it may appear. The discoveries of the English navigators in the South Sea have ascertained that between America and the southern point of Asia there is a chain of innumerable islands, the probable remains of some vast tract of land which, in that quarter, once united the two continents, and rendered the communication between Asia and the opposite shore of America easy. From whence it is very possible that, while North America has been peopled from the north-west, the south has received its inhabitants from the southern parts of Asia, the natives of this part of the new world being of a mild character, much resembling that of the southern Asiatics, and little tinctured with the ferocity of the Tartars. Like the languages of the Oriental Indians, theirs is also harmonious, and abounds in vowels. The influence of climate may undoubtedly affect language so far as to modify it, but can never produce a complete change in its primitive struc ture. The Chilians call their first progenitors, Pegni Epatun, which signifies the brothers Epatun, but of these patriarchs nothing but the name is known. They also call them glyce, primitive men, or men from the beginning, and in their assemblies invoke them, together with their deities, crying out with a loud voice, Pom, pum, pum, mari, mari, Epunamun, Amimalguen, Peni Epatum. The signification of the three first words is uncertain, and they might be considered as interjections, did not the word pum, by which the Chinese call the first created man, or the one saved from the waters, induce a suspicion, from its similarity, that these have a similar signification. The lamas, or priests of Thibet, from the accounts of the natives of Indostan, are accustomed to repeat on their rosaries the syllables hom, ha, hum, or øm, am, um, which in some measure corresponds with what we have mentioned of the Chilians. That Chili was originally peopled by one nation appears probable, as all the aborigines inhabiting it, however independent of each other, speak the same language, and have a similar appearance. Those that dwell in the plains are of good stature, but those that live in the vallies of the Andes, generally surpass the usual height of man. The purer air which they respire, and the continual exercise to which they are accustomed among their mountains, may perhaps be the cause of this difference, by imparting greater vigour to their frames. The features of both are regular, and neither of them have ever discovered that capricious whim, so common to savages of both the old and new world, of attempting to improve nature by disfiguring their faces, with a view of rendering themselves more beautiful or more for |