34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



Formerly, children born crippled or idiotic were killed, as previously 

 noted. Cooper lists as infanticides deformed offspring, one of twins, 

 and an illegitimate child, and notes that his sources are not clear on 

 the frequency of the occurrences (1946, p. 733). In Conaripe area it 

 is a known fact that one of twins is killed. 



In rare instances, it appears, a child born out of wedlock was killed 

 by its mother. She is known to do so in Conaripe area. "A daughter 

 of one of my neighbors killed her illegitimate child. I told her she 

 would damn her soul for doing such a thing. But recently she had 

 another such child and killed it too. Some say she throttled the babies 

 immediately after birth; others say she crushed them to death by 

 pressing them against something hard. Both children were born in 

 her home." A non-Araucanian in the same area knew of one young 

 unmarried mother who had killed her child and had heard it said that 

 others had done so; but the informant had been unable to verify the 

 rumors. 



COLOR BLINDNESS, LEFT-HANDEDNESS, SPEECH DEFECTS 



No Araucanian was known to be colorblind. Young children often 

 mistake blue for green or vice versa, said a non-Araucanian teacher, 

 but she thought this was owing to a lack of knowledge of colors, for 

 the mistake was no longer made after the children grew older. 



Both left-handed and ambidextrous children and adults were seen. 

 Of 62 school children, 2 girls and i boy were left-handed ; all three, 

 however, wrote with the right hand. "I would never let them write 

 with the left hand," said their teacher. Quoting another teacher: 

 "Parents are not disturbed over a left-handed child, but they make 

 it a point to tell me when they bring the child to school that it uses 

 its left hand instead of the right hand; that it has grown into the 

 habit of doing so." 



No left-handed child was known to stutter, including the three 

 whom the teacher had obliged to write with the right hand. Another 

 child in the same school did stutter. "His parents are first cousins," 

 the teacher explained. "They have two more children, but these do 

 not stutter. All three children are dull mentally." In Cofiaripe area 

 many children stuttered and so did a few adults. 



ADOPTIONS, SERVANTS, SLAVES 



No Araucanian child is left without a home. Not only is a deserted 

 or an orphaned child adopted, but, in some instances, one from a nor- 

 mal home as well. Never do relatives permit a child to be placed in 



