WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER IO3 



hammered out of rock ; even schoolchildren made them and small boys 

 also played the game. Today when only metal quoits are used small 

 boys find it tiring to play very long; these metal quoits are heavy." 

 Two, three, or four play a game. Two young men, 22 and 26 years 

 of age, were seen playing it as a pastime on a Sunday afternoon. The 

 goal was a line, about a meter in length, drawn in the sand with a 

 little stick. So that it could be seen at a distance, the stick was planted 

 in the middle of the line. About 50 meters from the goal, the players 

 drew another line — this was the base. Each player had two trapizoidal- 

 shaped metal quoits, approximately 2 inches in diameter at the bottom, 

 i^ inches at the top, and | inch in thickness. Each player's two quoits 

 had identical numerals engraved in them so as to be easily identified 

 by the owner. One player took his position at the base ; the other at 

 the goal, but merely as an interested observer — he could have stood 

 anywhere. The one at the base pitched his quoits toward the goal, 

 one at a time, and then he and the other player exchanged positions. 

 The second player now pitched his two quoits toward the goal, and 

 immediately went to see where they had landed. Scores were now 

 counted. A quoit that touched the goal scored two points — a player 

 could, therefore, have scored four points. Since the two men were 

 opponents, the lower score was subtracted from the higher, and the 

 difference recorded to the credit of the winner. Quite evidently, then, 

 if no quoit touched the goal, there was no score to record; if all four 

 quoits touched the line, scores canceled each other, and again there 

 was no score to record. Whoever scored the largest number at the 

 end of the game had won. Playing might have ended at any time. 

 Scores on this Sunday afternoon were marked in the ground nearby 

 by an onlooker, a young boy. 



During an interview in a ruka, a 5-year-old boy played with metal 

 quoits smaller than the above. He cleared a little space for himself by 

 shoving aside all objects, carried a low bench to one end of the space, 

 sat on it, and then threw the quoits toward his goal at the other end 

 of the space. 



A football game, noncompetitive and nonscoring, called pilota de 

 cochayuyo, is a favorite sport of schoolchildren in Alepue area. A 

 ball of cochayuyo has to be kept in action by being kicked. When the 

 ball is kicked, everyone runs to where it is expected to land, so as to 

 be the one to give it the next kick. Older schoolboys play it togther, 

 and so do older girls ; sometimes older girls and smaller boys together 

 play it. At a fiesta young men were seen playing it. It was not unusual 

 to see schoolboys squatted on their haunches before the opening of 

 school in the morning, weaving for themselves a ball of cochayuyo. 



