56 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



she returned the box of pins was on her desk and the boy was out 

 playing games. 



Anyone steahng food when greatly in need of it is not reported for 

 punishment ; but anyone caught selling a stolen article or animal is 

 reported. An old man said that one of his paternal aunts — one who 

 had adopted him — told him, when he was 15 years old, and his cousin, 

 who was 20 years old, to steal a sheep. The aunt had married a man 

 from another area, and since he was not a local man he had no right 

 to land where they now lived, and consequently the family was poor. 

 The informant believed the family from whom the sheep was stolen 

 knew it, "but they never made us pay for the sheep." 



Not all fathers teach sons to drink to excess, but none corrects a 

 son if he becomes intoxicated. Quoting a non-Araucanian teacher : 

 "I had often heard that Mapuche fathers obliged their sons to drink 

 to excess, but I hoped it was not true. One time when girls were tell- 

 ing me that their fathers taught their brothers to drink to excess, they 

 pointed at a boy and said, 'That boy there has been drunk twice.' To 

 which the boy responded, 'Yes, but my father made me drink.' " 

 Whether fathers at present use this as the basis for a personality pre- 

 diction test was not ascertained. That boys were so tested formerly 

 when under the intoxicating influence of the seeds of miyaiya (not 

 identified) was learned from Huenun in 1952 while checking with 

 him, in Chile, information collected in Argentina. Quoting Huenun : 

 "One of my relatives tested his sons that way when they were small, 

 and the forecast of their characters came true. The boy must not 

 know that he is being tested. On a day he is given the seeds of miyaiya 

 with toasted wheat or barley. I do not know whether the miyaiya is 

 toasted also. But he is given this as his meal. This makes him drunk. 

 His parents observe him in this state to see what he will do. If he 

 picks up things around the place, they know that he will turn out to 

 be a thief. H he acts toward other children as though he were going 

 to fight them, he will be a fighter. If he tries to get near girls, he will 

 be a lover. If he wants to drink everything in the place, he will be a 

 drunkard. If he pretends to be playing the guitar, he will be a musi- 

 cian. Formerly nearly all parents tried to discover the character of 

 each son. It was not so with girls; but a girl could have been sub- 

 jected to the test, too, in order to learn what her character would 

 turn out to be." 



ABSENCE OF PUBERTY RITES, MODESTY 



The Araucanians have no puberty rite, either for boys or for girls ; 

 nor is there a prepuberty fast. Cognizance, however, is taken of 



