WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER II7 



you. If you lay yourself upon the roof of the house, I shall see you. 

 Even should you ascend nearly to heaven, still I shall see you.' " 



(8) A prolonged inquiry into the cause of the sickness and the 

 condition of the patient. 



(9) Yelling by all present. "All persons who attend the machitun 

 walk around the ruka and cry out with all their might. This is done 

 to chase the spirits of sickness away." It is not a palm-to-mouth cry, 

 "it is just yelling loud*!" 



(10) Performing the parun (dance). "Everybody who has come 

 to assist with his presence must dance." 



(11) Rubbing the patient's body either with the plant or its ex- 

 tracted juice. The plant is heated over a fire until limp. Plants used 

 are : Palqui ; malva del monte ; laurel comiin ; padwe. "The machi 

 used padwe in rubbing my brother ; I saw it," said a 14-year-old school- 

 girl who had collected a specimen. "Yes," added the 7-year-old 

 brother, "I remember when the machi rubbed me with it." Quilmay ; 

 chilliim ; chaura. "I saw my mother being rubbed down with chaura by 

 a machi," said a lo-year-old girl. Ortiga menor; traftrafen. "I saw 

 the machi rub my mother with traftrafefi when she was sick," said a 

 12-year-old boy. "My mother looked at this [specimen] and said it was 

 the same as that which the machi had used." Wautro. A 12-year-old 

 boy who collected a specimen in an open space on hills noted, "I col- 

 lected some of these plants for the machi in the same place last year 

 [1945] when she treated my mother. The machi held the leaves close to 

 the fire until they were soft, and then rubbed the sap on my mother. I 

 saw her do this. I had forgotten what plant she had used, but my 

 father told me yesterday. I showed him this one [specimen] and he 

 said it is the correct one." Romerillo ; ijiimawe ; paico ; fenfenco (not 

 identified; found in very wet places, usually floating on water) ; saiico 

 del diablo. 



(12) Oral medications. Of plants for oral medication panil was the 

 only one known to informants. The juice of its stem was mixed with a 

 small quantity of water to make the patient vomit. 



(13) Paying the machi, sometimes in advance, the customary or 

 requested payments of money and four-footed animals. Araucanian 

 informants thought that a machi was well paid for his treatment of 

 the sick. "The machi who treated the sick woman whom you saw 

 yesterday demanded 600 pesos and several heads of cattle in payment 

 — and her family is a poor family, something the machi knows." In 

 such cases relatives and friends who attend a machitun often con- 

 tribute money to help defray the expense. "Chileans have said to me 

 that the machi sends sickness to people so that he will be called to 

 make the machitun for which he will then be well paid." 



