WHOLE VOL, ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 73 



tion of a ruka. Relatives, friends, and neighbors assisted each other 

 in these occupations. Mudai, the traditional alcoholic beverage, was 

 formerly drunk; in more recent times, and at present, it is chicha, 

 either home-brewed or obtained from Chilean dealers. If a family can 

 afford it, Chilean wine is also taken. Non-Araucanians thought that 

 some persons satisfied their taste for alcohol by eating fermented 

 potatoes (funaponii, pp. 208-209). 



Today a keg of chicha is consumed whenever relatives, friends, and 

 neighbors get together. Traditionally, as noted, such times are thresh- 

 ing time and ruka-building time ; to these have been added the event 

 of a sale of a goodly number of cattle or sheep ; the baptism of a child ; 

 and all civil and religious fiestas — never, however, when people are 

 gathered for the qillatun. "Most certainly not then ; no one is in- 

 toxicated at the rjillatun." Heavy drinking is usually begun toward 

 the end of the event. Cooper's earliest sources consistently attribute 

 heavy drinking to the Araucanians, with heaviest drinking done at 

 feasts (1946, p. 741). 



TEACHING THE CHILD 

 INSTRUCTORS 



Teaching the child was the responsibility of its immediate family, 

 chiefly the parents, but also brothers and sisters. Grandparents, uncles, 

 and aunts, and other relatives were the child's teachers only when 

 they filled the place of parents, something which happened when a 

 parent was ill over a long period of time, when a grandparent reared 

 a child because of a wish or a necessity to have a companion, or when 

 the child lived in the home of a grandparent, aunt, or uncle because 

 the child's parents had deserted it or had died, or it was adopted for 

 some reason. 



While the child was very young, the mother was its chief teacher. 

 As a girl grew older, she was instructed by her mother in household 

 duties; the father instructed the boy in a man's work. In matters of 

 character and moral training, parents often shared responsibilities; 

 they took time out both to instruct and to council their children. 

 "Whenever there is leisure time, or we think it is an opportune time 

 to do so, like during an afternoon, my husband and I sit down with 

 our boys — we have only boys — and instruct them like all fathers and 

 mothers do — we advise them regarding things they must know, espe- 

 cially in what is the right thing to do." 



The spokesman for a group of eight men, all collaborating, told that 

 each son is trained directly by the father to have respect for his 



