WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 2."] 



a horn of gold. Sleep, baby, sleep ; sleep, baby sleep. Already the cow 

 with the silver tail is coming. Sleep, baby, sleep." (2) "Sleep, baby, 

 sleep, with the little shoes, through St. John of God. Look! There 

 comes the cow with the silvery horn. Sleep, baby, sleep. There comes 

 the bull with his golden star. Sleep, baby, sleep." (3) "Sleep, sleep, 

 baby. See, I have work to do. My little machine calls me with its triqui 

 traca. Be quiet, be quiet, baby, sleep. Sleep, to please God. See I 

 have work to do." (4) "Sleep, baby. I have much to do: I must 

 wash your diapers and sit down to sew." 



TEETHING, CREEPING, WALKING, TALKING, LAUGHING 



The appearance of a child's first tooth is taken notice of but does not 

 designate a specific period of physical development. Parents, however, 

 express satisfaction because their child is developing normally, and 

 may say, "That child is growing up right." Rarely does the family 

 give it any further attention, or consider it an event. In Conaripe area 

 an occasional family slaughters a sheep and invites neighbors that are 

 friends, or "if the mother has relatives, like a brother or an aunt or an 

 uncle in the neighborhood, she will invite them to come to eat, saying, 

 'My child has its first tooth.' " In Alepue area anyone happening to be 

 in a ruka when it is noticed that a child has its first tooth will be 

 treated to yerba mate. 



The mother washes the gums of a teething child, morning and 

 evening, with a wad of wool soaked in a decoction of limpia plata to 

 which alum is added, or salt, if no alum is at hand. The child is not 

 given a hard substance on which to bite. 



In Conaripe it is customary to put the first deciduous tooth dropped 

 by a child into safekeeping and to add others as they drop out. When 

 all have fallen out, they are buried in the floor of the ruka, "such as 

 in a corner or close to one of those poles [supporting the roof] where 

 no one walks. These teeth are a part of the human being and contain 

 part of his spirit. They are buried in this manner so that when the 

 person dies, his spirit will not need to go around looking for the rest 

 of himself. No, they are not put into a container or piece of cloth ; 

 they are buried just the way they are." In Alepue area the child 

 throws each tooth as it falls out into a chupon. "No animal will at- 

 tempt to get in there because the blades of the plant have sharp points." 

 The child will say in Araucanian, as it throws a tooth, "Little mouse, 

 little mouse, give me a new tooth ; a nicer one than this old one." 



If the first deciduous tooth has fallen out and the others are slow 

 in doing so, the mother rubs a preparation along the child's gums. In 



