Case file · Folklore / legend
Darwin and the Gualichu tree
In August 1833 Charles Darwin, riding north from the Río Negro, saw the sacred tree of the spirit Gualichu (Walleechu), hung with offerings of cloth, tobacco and food left by Indigenous travellers.
1833 CE · -40.20, -63.40 · status: account
The account
In 'The Voyage of the Beagle' Darwin describes how passing people sang to the tree and left gifts, and how bones of horses sacrificed to it lay around. For the Tehuelche and other peoples of the pampa, Gualichu was a powerful and often harmful spirit; in Argentine Spanish 'gualicho' still means a spell or hex.
The sceptical view
Darwin's account is a firsthand observation; his reading of the beliefs behind it was an outsider's.