WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 55 



resented. "It is considered a vile expression," the teacher added, 

 "Children who know very little Spanish will use it when their anger 

 has been roused." 



Temper tantrums were not usual on the part of small children; 

 seldom did an older child have one. Mothers ignored such displays : 

 "The child is merely angry and such a child has to learn to live alone 

 with its anger or to overcome it." Quoting a non-Araucanian herbal- 

 ist : "I have often seen a child tied to its cradleboard, crying pitifully 

 and continuously, with no one paying the slightest attention to it. 

 Just yesterday I said to a mother, 'Maybe the baby wants its little arms 

 freed ; it has cried so long.' To which the mother replied, 'No ; it is 

 only self-willed.' Recently a little 2-year-old girl had a fit of temper 

 — she threw herself on the floor of the ruka, kicked, and screamed. I 

 suggested to the mother that she spank her, and so help her to over- 

 come her temper. The mother looked at me with surprise and said, 

 'I could not spank so small a child; she will learn by and by, if no 

 one pays any attention to her.' I could not bear the screaming any 

 longer. I picked up the child, looked at her sternly, and gave her a 

 few gentle taps on her back. She stopped crying immediately and 

 looked at me. The mother remarked, 'She is surprised ; she has never 

 had that done to her.' " 



STEALING, INTOXICATION 



An occasional child steals. Parents, however, feel disgraced by the 

 act, and see to it that the stolen object is returned, if possible without 

 implicating the thief. The following examples seem to indicate this : 

 A football disappeared from a school room. The teacher spoke of it, 

 saying that the one who had it in his possession, or anything else that 

 did not belong to him, could not be at peace with his conscience and 

 had better return the thing to the rightful owner. Shortly afterward 

 the boy whom she suspected told her that he had seen the ball in a 

 swamp, not far from his home. Two sisters in their late teens at- 

 tended private sewing lessons taught at school on Saturdays. One 

 Saturday a box of pins disappeared. The following Monday the 

 teacher announced to her class that the pins were missing and that 

 the thieves were known, and told the children to report at home that 

 unless the pins were returned the names of the thieves would be made 

 public as a warning to others. The following day, before school was 

 called, a brother of the suspected girls stayed close to the teacher's 

 desk ; all other children were on the playground. Thinking he wanted 

 to return the pins unbeknown to her, the teacher left the room. When 



