WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE— HILGER 19 



FONTANELS, HEAD SHAPING, BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 



Until the fontanels have closed, the baby's head must be protected 

 from the wind, which, it is believed, will blow through the fontanels 

 and give the baby difficulty in breathing. Formerly the soft moss 

 found between stocks of old quila was put around the baby's head in 

 caplike fashion. "That moss was soft and dense. A mother collected 

 it and had it on hand when her baby was born. It is difficult today to 

 find any of it— forest fires have destroyed all the old quila. Anyway, 

 today the baby's head is covered with an infant's cap." 



The child's physical and mental development is associated with the 

 closin- of the fontanels. If they have not closed by the time the child 

 walks, parents fear that the child will be weakminded, that it will have 

 difficulty in walking, or may not learn to walk at all. 



According to an educated Araucanian, the true Araucanian face is 

 round ; one not round is always a mestizo, he insisted-a statement to 

 which not all Araucanians would subscribe. A round face, however, 

 is considered a beautiful one by an Araucanian mother. In Pangui- 

 pulli and Coharipe areas a mother massages her baby's face to round 

 it whenever she gives it care or nurses or fondles it. An informant 

 showed the manner in which this was done. She moved the fingertips 

 of both hands simultaneously from jaw to front of ears; then from 

 bridge of nose along cheek bones; next from middle of forehead 

 toward temples; and then downward along the ridge of the nose 

 "But the mother must do it tenderly, for the bones of the baby s head 

 are very soft," she added. When the baby sleeps, the mother will push 

 its cheeks upward with her fingertips and tie little boards over the 

 cheeks to keep them in this position. When asked if the face of a boy, 

 too, was so treated to beautify it, she retorted, "Most certainly it was ; 

 more so than a girl's. It is the boys who as men will be the progenitors 

 of the human race." 



The mother also shapes the head bones of her baby with her hands ; 

 in some instances she ties little boards to its head to round it. She will 

 train its back to be straight by tying it to its cradleboard, but in doing 

 so will allow freedom of movement for its head. However, if the head 

 bulges in the occipital region, she will tie a little board there while the 

 baby is asleep. "That is why the Mapuche have^nicely formed heads. 

 The heads of Chileans often bulge in the back." 



In all probability it is correct to speak of an "Araucanian nose - 

 that is, a nose shaped to resemble the beak of the bandurna. The 

 bandurria's beak is long and ends in a graceful dip. Quoting a 

 Conaripe mother : "The mother often pulls the baby's nose downward 



