WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 7I 



Suicide was committed by hanging. It was not infrequently com- 

 mitted by a woman grieving over an irremovable cause, especially a 

 married woman who found herself in an unbearable situation, such as 

 having to live in a forced marriage to which she would not or could 

 not adjust, or because she was being beaten at every slight provocation 

 by a husband with an uncontrolled temper. "In my 50 years among 

 the Mapuche," said a non-Araucanian missionary, "25 instances have 

 come to my knowledge in which a woman hung herself; the most 

 recent one occurred two years ago [1945]. When a man returns 

 home and does not find his wife there, or finds that she has left no 

 word for him, he knows that she has hung herself. A woman usually 

 finds a most isolated and unfrequented place to do so. She selects an 

 elevated place on which to stand, ties her belt about her neck, ties the 

 other end of the belt to a branch of the tree which she has bent down, 

 and then releases the branch. She then dangles in midair and dies. 

 People help the man search for her. If they do not find her, they wait 

 until they see large numbers of jote [Chilean vultures] flying about in 

 one place. Jotes gather where there is dead meat. They know then 

 that her body can be found thqre." 



A man is known to commit suicide when rejected by his sons — 

 almost without exception a son is submissive and deeply respectful 

 toward his father all his lifetime. A non-Araucanian teacher told of 

 a suicide of a father : "This happened a few years ago — it is the only 

 instance of suicide in this area in the past 10 years. It was generally 

 known that the man and his wife quarreled and that the older sons 

 sided with the mother. During a quarrel one of the sons injured his 

 father with a hoe. The father took a lasso and left the ruka. Later he 

 was found dead, hanging from a tree not far from the ruka. Every 

 Mapuche tried to hush the afifair for fear the Chilean police would 

 exhume the body to ascertain whether the death had been due to 

 violence by another — a thing for which persons are imprisoned. The 

 father, however, took revenge, it was said. Periodically, over a long 

 period of time, he came back to his ruka. No one ever saw him, but 

 he slammed the door when he entered, howled about the place, and 

 sometimes caused the fire to flare up. The young children were afraid 

 to be in the ruka; even the older sons did not wish to be in it alone." 



Cannibalism was not part of the Araucanian culture. "Very old 

 people have told that in very early times it sometimes happened that 

 our people did not have enough to eat and that from sheer hunger 

 a few lost their minds ; such persons sometimes ate the meat off other 

 Mapuche who had died. But at no other time did Mapuche eat 

 humans," 



