WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER II3 



human beings. However, when walking, they did not touch the ground, but 

 flew like birds. They said that they were sent by chau to say to me, "Carry out 

 the ancient rites and cause qillatun to be convoked ; he who forgets me shall be 

 unhappy on earth and will not enter into my kingdom." Then they said to me, 

 "You will have to suffer a mental disturbance for four days, so that you can 

 learn to know the blessed land of heaven." After this I saw four old men who 

 wore rainbow-colored clothes. They clothed me in the same colors and adorned 

 me with leaves of canelo. Then they led me to the four cardinal points of the 

 earth, that is to the east, the north, the west, and the south. In the south I saw 

 an old woman sitting down. She asked me with astonishment what I was doing 

 on their earth. Those who accompanied me answered that chau had chosen me 

 to adore him, that I would give continuity to the ancient rites. Then the four 

 men and I returned by the way of the four cardinal points. My food was copihue 

 flowers. The men selected for me the name of Ayon-kahnell, and as a banner, the 

 flag of Chile. They told me to always use the banner when celebrating the rite. 

 They told me that I must love my neighbor and cure him of his illness; and 

 cure him, also, of evil that befalls him, because human beings are full of curable 

 afflictions, which are the work of the devil, something which chau does not wish 

 to be so. "For these cures," they said, "you must take the herbs of the land and 

 give these to men to drink ; chau has blessed these herbs ; do not have any doubt 

 in their efficacy." They then took leave of me, and I returned to my earth where 

 I woke up. 



Individuals sometime resent these compulsive dreams. "They may- 

 be incapacitated for two or three or more days after such a dream," 

 The woman machi in Alepue was said to have been sick two years. 

 A 21-year-old man in Maiquillahue (Alepue area) had had such a 

 dream shortly before I arrived. "He does not want to be a machi," 

 schoolchildren said. The mother of one of the schoolchildren volun- 

 teered, "But the spirit that told him to be one haunts and haunts him : 

 sometimes the spirit throws him down and the young man is like 

 dead. The spirit really makes him suffer. A few times the man has 

 been sick near death. I hear he is now taking instructions from a 

 machi." The interpreter had heard that the instructing machi had 

 been at the man's home for some celebration and that shortly after 

 that the man's brother had died ; that it was now being said that the 

 machi had caused his death. "That man's family," she added, "has 

 become poor. Everything they own is being gradually converted into 

 money. The machi insists in being paid in money for her instructions ; 

 recently they sold their cattle to do so." 



Once a person has decided to be a machi he presents himself as a 

 candidate to a practicing machi, usually an older one with much ex- 

 perience. Parents who notice unusual intelligence in one of their 

 children may advise and urge it to become a machi, and finally place 

 it with a machi to be instructed and trained. 



Generally an adult candidiate must spend two to three years with 



