96 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



skunk then said, "Let us dart eight little sticks like we dart arrows. [These are 

 darted toward a goal.] If you win, then I will take your poncho and let you 

 have mine." The skunk won. But the fox who had forcibly taken the skunk's 

 poncho by now threw it into the fire where it burned up. Then the skunk sat 

 down and cried, and said, "My mother will spank me." Then three very young 

 children came walking along and said to the skunk, "Don't cry ; before long you 

 will find a better poncho than you had." But that was not all : The fox then 

 ordered one of the children to split wood, another to build the fire, and the third 

 to put the olla on the fireplace. After the water boiled, the fox took the three 

 children and put them into the olla. As soon as they were cooked, he ate them. 



One of "the other kind" as told to a 14-year-old boy by his 80-year- 

 old grandmother : 



It was in ancient times. There was a very rich man who had many animals 

 in his meadow — he was so rich that he could not count his animals. This rich 

 man had two dogs. He thought of these dogs as his two sons : they understood 

 all that they were told and they carried out his orders. These two dogs were 

 accustomed to being sent to the meadows to bring home animals that were to 

 be slaughtered. When the rich man was no longer satisfied to eat jerked meat, 

 he sent his dogs to the meadows to fetch animals. 



The following nonhistorical tale was told to a 12-year-old boy by 

 his 34-year-old uncle; the uncle's grandfather had told it as having 

 happened when he (the grandfather) was a child : 



A puma had four cubs, and lay in her den with them. While lying there she 

 heard some cries and whining. It was dogs she was hearing. The dogs were 

 coming nearer the den. The cubs ran out and away. The puma, too, leaped out 

 of the den and over a bush of quila. But the dogs chased her. Then the puma 

 climbed up a tree and the cubs followed her. The owner of the dog came and 

 cut down the tree. The dogs killed the puma and ate the little ones. 



The two following stories, told by Conaripe men (33 and 34 years 

 of age) are true historic events, so the informants said. Said one: 



My grandparents told me that old Mapuche said that from very early times 

 one could enter caves at one end of Lake Calafquen near here, walk underneath 

 the lake, its full length, and then under the complete length of Lake Pilaifa and 

 come out at the other end of Lake Pilaifa; that our people formerly hid under 

 these lakes when their enemies came upon them — like they formerly did from 

 what is now Argentina ; they say that the entrance to the cave under Lake 

 Pilaifa can still be seen. 



The other informant then took his turn : 



There was an old lazy Mapuche man, but a very intelligent one. He lived off 

 the rest of the people. One day he saw many Mapuche coming up the path. He 

 hurried to the river nearby and stuck a sapling into the river bottom, a little 

 distance from the bank. When the people came, he said, "A flood is coming!" 

 The people moved on. When they had moved on a bit, he, behind their backs, 

 moved the sapling farther from the bank toward the middle of the river, and 



