70 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



"It would not mean the same." Vile expressions used by angry per- 

 sons, generally hurled back and forth between them, informants pre- 

 ferred not to translate. "They are really bad words; I will not tell 

 them ; they are sex words related to men. We have words, too, that 

 are so bad that should a mother be very angry with her children, she 

 will not call her children by them." Cooper lists among common in- 

 sulting terms "ghost," "dog," and "toad," and, as worst of all, 

 "sorcerer." He directs the reader (1946, p. 729) to Guevara (1911, 

 pp. 50-56) for a list including grosser insults. 



An old man gave a sample of an imprecation used by Araucanians, 

 "even in old days." He spoke it in low tones in Araucanian. His 

 wife and daughter murmured displeasure, in fact slight horror. He 

 translated it as meaning, "Would that it were the will of God that you 

 be unlucky." He added, "This is the worst thing of all that one 

 Mapuche can say to another." 



Murder is known to have resulted from anger. An instance was 

 related in which relatives of an Araucanian woman who was married 

 to a Chilean came to the woman's ruka and told her that they were 

 taking the land on which she and her Chilean husband were living. 

 There had been much quarreling between the two groups regarding 

 the land, because Chileans, so the relatives claimed, had no right to 

 live on Araucanian land. One of the women relatives had with her a 

 leather strap ; with it, she said, she would whip the Chilean off the 

 land if he refused to leave it. When the quarrel was on, she attempted 

 to do this. The Chilean grabbed the strap and whipped the woman so 

 severely with it that she died a few hours later. The Chilean, ac- 

 companied by his brother, immediately delivered himself up to Chilean 

 civil authorities. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The 

 immediate relatives of the woman said nothing; more distant ones 

 sided with the Chilean on the ground that the woman had had no right 

 to whip this man or any other man. The informant continued : "That 

 Chilean man was not known to be a quarrelsome man; he probably 

 lost his temper." The interpreter noted : "The Mapuche do not up- 

 hold anyone of their own who is punished by the Chilean courts, not 

 even a near relative. They say that the person has committed an 

 offense and is deserving of his punishment." 



Revenge is taken upon another by doing harm to his fields through 

 witchcraft (pp. 154-155), or to his person by secretly putting poison 

 into his food or drink, or by bringing sickness upon him through witch- 

 craft. I was told of a case of a jealous machi (one of three simul- 

 taneous wives) who bore her husband no child, while the other two 

 wives did. When these other two wives were found dead, one with 

 her child in her arms, the machi was accused of poisoning them. 



