WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 1 7 



more recently, the powdered scrapings off the broken edge of an iron 

 kettle are used. The ashes must be those of either huique or pelu. 

 Those of pilfii must not be used as they are poisonous. This mixture 

 "certainly dries up that oozing." 



There is a belief, in all areas, that the umbilical cord should be 

 saved, but the reasons for doing so, and for disposing of it, differ. 

 Quoting an Alepiie mother : "I tied the cord of each of my children, 

 when it fell off, into a little piece of cloth and put it somewhere in the 

 ruka. The most recent ones I kept there [on a nail of a rafter in a 

 corner of the ruka] and there [on a shelf attached to the side of the 

 ruka]. The cord must never be thrown out of the ruka. If it is, the 

 child will always have fear within itself, and that without reason. 

 Without thinking of what I was doing, I threw the cord of one of my 

 daughters out-of-doors after it had been lying on the rafters for a 

 while. Consequently she has always had fear in herself ; today, al- 

 though she is 13 years old, she dislikes going out of the ruka when it 

 is dark." A listening-in woman agreed, and added: "It causes that 

 child to be without courage in general." Another listening-in woman 

 had a hearty laugh when asked where the cords of her children were, 

 and said, "I do not know where they are now ; they got lost somewhere 

 in our ruka. I kept them inside the ruka, however." 



A 60-year-old Cofiaripe woman had not heard of the belief of the 

 Alepue women. She had kept the cords of her children in the ruka 

 because throwing them out indicates to others that the parents do not 

 care what the child will turn out to be. 



According to Panguipulli informants, the cord today is thrown into 

 running water, such as a creek or brook. Formerly it was wrapped up 

 in a small piece of cloth and stored under the rafters. Doing this gave 

 the child courage, even the courage to climb tall trees. Informants 

 had not heard of anyone burying a cord, or of undesirable conse- 

 quences if it were thrown into the fire. "I certainly never heard that 

 throwing it into the fire would make a child poke at fires," a belief 

 held by the Chippewa. When told of the Arapaho custom of sewing 

 the cord into a beaded bag and owning it as an adult, a woman re- 

 marked, "Why go through so much trouble and why save those things 

 so long?" 



SECUNDINES, PLACENTA, CAUL 



After the child is born, the midwife or the mother's mother cleans 

 it, swaddles it in a piece of homewoven woolen cloth, and ties it to its 

 cradle. In the meantime another woman, or the woman's husband, 

 if everyone else is busy, makes the mother gag by pushing two fingers 



