WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 29 



FIRST CLOTHES 



In the early days a little girl who had learned proper toilet habits 

 was dressed in clothes modeled on those worn by adult women (cf. 

 pp. 223-224). The chamall used was either woven especially for her 

 or cut from an old one. Until a little boy learned proper toilet habits 

 he was dressed in a skirtlike diaper as were girls. After that he wore 

 his chamall like a man's chiripa, that is, drawn forward between the 

 legs and tucked under a belt. He also wore a poncho, "just like 

 grown-up men do." At present an occasional child is dressed as 

 formerly, but most children are dressed in modern clothes like Chilean 

 children. Rarely does a child have a hat or shoes, even today ; for- 

 merly all were bareheaded and barefooted. 



NURSING, WEANING 



Before the baby's first nursing, the midwife, or, in her absence, 

 someone else who knows how, pokes a finger down its throat and 

 then pours into it the juice of a leaf of paico or a teaspoonful of a 

 concentrated decoction of a leaf of paico. The leaf is heated near the 

 fire and its sap squeezed out by hand. The baby will gag and throw 

 up the phlegm that has been in its throat. The baby is nursed for the 

 first time when the mother returns from her bath. 



If the mother has no milk flow after delivery, she is given the sap 

 of the root of qil in water gotten from flowing water, usually a 

 spring. She drinks of this mixture two or three times and also washes 

 her breasts with it. She eats no special foods to cause an increase in 

 milk flow, but she does eat larger quantities of available foods, espe- 

 cially toasted wheat and roasted corn. These cereals, generally mixed 

 with warm water, she eats alternately in warm and cold water, the 

 belief being that if eaten in warm water only they will make the baby 

 hot. 



The child is nursed whenever it cries. "The mother knows that it 

 is hungry then." It is given both breasts at each nursing and is nursed 

 "until it wants no more." If a baby persists in crying after it is 

 nursed, or cries and refuses to nurse, it is thought to be sick. Relief 

 is then sought from an herbalist, a specialist. General household reme- 

 dies do not seem to include any for sick babies. On rare occasions a 

 machitun (a shamanistic ceremonial) is performed over the sick baby. 

 "Mothers cannot bear to hear a baby cry," said a non-Araucanian 

 herbalist. "If one persists in crying, the father comes and asks for a 

 remedy. I usually suggest that the mother refrain from eating highly 

 spiced foods, and I give him herbs from which to make decoctions. 



