WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 89 



are : "I do not know exactly how old I am. I lost the paper that told 

 it." Or "I calculate I am about 60 years old. If you could see the 

 baptismal record at the mission, you could see our ages — mine and my 

 husbands. I had our certificates in a box in which I kept everything 

 valuable. But someone stole the box." A Cofiaripe woman answered 

 regarding her own age, "Who knows? Who cares to know? This 

 grandchild here is 3 years 3 months old." She had not heard of any 

 one marking the age of a child on the horn of an animal, an Arapaho 

 custom. 



PREDICTION OF WEATHER 



Weather is either favorable or unfavorable, depending on the need 

 at the time ; either kind may therefore be rainy or sunny or dry. Rain 

 is favorable before seeding time and occasionally during growing time, 

 "but most certainly not during harvesting and threshing time; then 

 dry sunny weather is favorable." Favorable weather is spoken of as 

 kiimewenuijei (everything looks well above, or everything looks well 

 in the sky) ; unfavorable weather, as makiimewenuriei. 



The manner of forecasting weather is different for all areas, if it 

 is attempted at all. In Alepue area (Pacific coast), a rain can be fore- 

 cast a day or two in advance when Isla Mocha in the Pacific can be 

 clearly seen; also, when a "wall of clouds" — in appearance like a bank 

 of fog — is seen slowly moving in over the Pacific from the western 

 horizon; or when winds blow from the south-southwest; or when 

 piden, a bird that lives in the swamps, sends out his call; or after 

 intense heat ; and when many flies are around. A red sky at the hori- 

 zon on the Pacific, following a rain, "tells that the rain is over." In 

 Panguipulli area not even the oldest informant knew how to forecast 

 weather. 



In one of the valleys in Cofiaripe area (in the Andes), a clear sky 

 after a rain forecasts fair weather for the following day ; so do clouds 

 passing northward. "But when the wind howls on the ridges of the 

 Cordillera and in the valley up there, it usually rains down here in 

 our valley for the next few days ; the wind howled up there this 

 morning, but not too loud. There will be no sun today, however ; and 

 it is difficult to say whether or not there will be any tomorrow." Rain 

 can also be expected the day following a starlit night, "one in which 

 there are many stars, so many that they seem close together." In an- 

 other valley in Cofiaripe area, clouds moving from the north forecast 

 rain ; from the south, sunny weather. "Usually here," said the in- 

 formant, "the weather at the change of the moon continues until the 

 next change of the moon. For example, if we have rainy weather at 



