10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



different plant abortifacients. A non-Araucanian was called to assist 

 two unmarried pregnant girls who were dying — their mother and an 

 older sister had worked the abdomen of the girls, even to hitting them 

 with boards, to cause them to abort. "A family is very much em- 

 barrassed and deeply ashamed when a girl of the family gives birth 

 out of wedlock," noted the informant. Spontaneous abortions were 

 known to have occurred in instances where an expectant mother was 

 overcome with fright. 



SEX PREFERENCE AND SEX PREDICTION 



Boys have always been preferred to girls ("a man hates his wife if 

 she gives him only girls") because a son will assist his father with 

 work ; he can be the father of a family ; and he returns to his paternal 

 home, bringing his bride with him. A girl, on the contrary, marries 

 and goes away from home ; she pays no more attention to her parents. 

 "Girls do not seem to care how parents get along." During the days 

 of attack by the Argentine army, boys were especially preferred ; men 

 were needed to protect the people. "In fact, we prayed to God in the 

 qillatun [tribal religious ceremonial] to have boys born to us." How- 

 ever, a girl is in no way made to feel the fact that she is not a boy. 



Informants were agreed that there is no preference regarding the 

 first-born child, but that if children are all of one sex parents are 

 disappointed. Two non-Araucanians had heard that, formerly, if the 

 first-born was a girl, it was killed. This was not verified. A decoction 

 taken by the woman was known to have been used effectively when 

 boys were desired, but no informant knew its ingredients. If only 

 girls are born to a family, the man procures the decoction from 

 a specialist, usually an old man or an old woman. "A man who had 

 only girls used to pass by our ruka every month on his way to a woman 

 herbalist who lived across the river. He went there to get something 

 which his wife drank so that they would have some boys. He used 

 to come back with his bottle filled. That year they had a boy. He 

 was so grateful that he gave the herbalist a sheep. The decoction had 

 to be taken while the moon was gaining, and only the wife drank it. 

 The man saw the woman mix well-beaten white of eggs with the sap 

 of green seeds of limpia plata and the juice of several other plants 

 which the woman did not let him see. Since I had only boys, I asked 

 him if the woman could give me something to drink to have girls. He 

 obviously never found out for he did not tell me. And I never tried 

 to find out. I thought it best to be satisfied with what God sends." 



It is believed, too, that if a man at any time cuts his fingernails 



