WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE— HILGER 57 



puberty : a prepuberty boy is spoken of as "a growing-up boy" and is 

 addresLd as "ifttle man" ; after his voice has changed he - addressed 

 as "young man" (weche wentru) and is spoken of as 'single man o 

 "unmarried man." A girl before her first n^nstruation - sPoken o 

 as "a erowing-up girl" and is addressed as "Uttle woman after first 

 menstraUon as 'young woman" (ulkhe) and also as "urimarr^d 

 Z^l" or "single wonran" (fucha p,ra). Only an occas.ona mother 

 Tnstructs a daughter regarding first menstruation and -o*"hood in 

 instances an older sister of the girl has been known to do so QuoUng 

 Araucanian women; "We do nothing for a g.rl when she is that way 

 " first time. Since the mother has said nothing to her girl about 

 t th gll gets frightened and does not tell anyone ; a girl is ashamed 

 * en ftaut it. I know a girl who was so ^nsf-d that she did no 

 get sick again for two years. If the mother takes notice hat the girl 

 no longe gets her monthly, she gives her a tea of cukmtrillo, chukur, 

 and parra sylvestre; or if a girl is old enough and has not yet taken 

 sick her mother gives her tea of kudun amun [unidentified]. Quot 

 tag a woman in her eighties: "I know that the fP"*^ ™*-^jJ;^ 

 no' instruct their daughters. Now that I am g^"-^ °)^;, j^^utt 

 told voung mothers to tell their 14- and 15-year-old girls about it 

 WheH girl does not know what has happened to her, she worries 

 !Id dries ™ inside. It was a Chilean girl who told me about it when 

 I wasToung; I had worried much. She said all women had it; when 

 I knew that, I stopped worrying." ■, u ^ i^^n 



ThL ar; no taboos regarding eating off dishes used by a men- 

 struaang woman; nor is if believed that men's clothing will be con- 

 taminated if left in her presence. 



Children by themselves and among themselves are modest. Their 



— e'^tttxrtrfrhaTsr^^^^^^ 



slolchildren-girls more often than ^^^-J^^^^^tk^e-r^^^^ 

 machitun, ceremonials performed over nude adult sick persons. 



had attended one in 1946. 



