Kénos

The Kénos religion belonged to the Selk'nam, who lived on the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego and shared their myths with the neighbouring Haush. Its supreme being was Temáukel, who was the only one Selk'nam counted as a true god. Kénos, the first of the mythic ancestors called howenh, was sent down by him to organise the primeval earth and make the beings who shaped it.

Spirits of the underworld, led by the goddess Xalpen and her seven shoorts, were impersonated by men in the great initiation ceremony called Hain, in which boys were frightened by the spirits until they unmasked them. Shaman-like figures were believed able to control the weather.