Frezier Says, That The Indians On The Continent,
To The Southward Of This Island, Are Called Chonos, Who Go Quite
Naked; and that there is a race of men of extraordinary size in the
inland parts of the country, called
Cacahues,[261] who are in amity
with the Chonos, and sometimes accompany them to the Spanish
settlements in Chiloe. Frezier says, that he has been credibly informed
by eye-witnesses, that some of these were about nine or ten feet high. I
had sight of two of these Indians, who came from the southward of St
Domingo river, one of whom was a cacique, who did not seem to me to
differ in their persons from the ordinary natives of Chiloe. They were
decently clothed in ponchos, monteras, and poulains. The poncho is
a sort of square carpet, having a slit or hole cut in the middle, wide
enough to slip over the head, so that it hangs down over the shoulders,
half before and half behind, under which they generally wear a short
doublet. On their heads they have a montera, or cap nearly like those
of our postillions, and their legs are covered by the poulains, a kind
of knit buskins, or hose without feet. In short, their appearance has
little or none of the savage. Their habitations are firmly built of
planks, but have no chimneys, so that they are very black and sooty
within.
[Footnote 261: See an account of the native tribes, inhabiting the
southern extremity of South America, vol.
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