126 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



not able to pay the bride price, maintained a monogamous marriage 

 (1946, p. 721). 



Occasionally a woman resented her husband's marrying a second 

 wife, either because she had a personal dislike for the other woman 

 or was jealous of her, or because her husband neglected her, or 

 it reflected on her capabilities. An instance was related where a man 

 announced to his wife, who had borne him six children, that he was 

 bringing home a second wife, a young woman. The young woman was 

 brought in, and the neighborhood was feasted for a week. The two 

 wives lived in separate ruka. The man ignored the first wife, and 

 forbade her the customary jurisdiction over the second one. The 

 non-Araucanian interpreter added : "The older one told me of her 

 intense inner suffering because of this. When at the point of death, 

 the husband came near her and immediately her resentment was 

 roused, and she kept calling him, 'You devil.' The woman often said 

 to me, T have suffered terribly.' " Instances were known where a 

 woman found the situation of simultaneous wives exceedingly trying ; 

 sometimes so unbearable that she committed suicide by hanging her- 

 self. Usually, however, there was no difficulty about this. 



Although at present monogamous marriages prevail, there were 

 polygynous marriages in each area I visited. They are prohibited by 

 Chilean law and are looked at askance by both Araucanians and non- 

 Araucanians. "Any man who has two wives today," said a 45-year- 

 old Alepue man, "is spoken of in derision as a cacique ; to have two 

 wives today is considered a disgrace." South of Boroa (Lican area) 

 many men today have two wives ; one has four. 



Formerly, simultaneous wives were often sisters, possibly because 

 of the custom of the sororate which was institutional but not obliga- 

 tory. Today simultaneous wives in Lican are usually not sisters; no 

 two of the Lican wives were. In Alepue, they were : "Down near the 

 Pacific lives a man, now older than 100 years, whose two wives were 

 sisters ; one is still living, the other died not long ago. A machi in 

 Mehuin has three wives, two of whom are sisters." Many times wives 

 were more distantly related. It was known that, in general, wives 

 that were related lived more agreeably together than did others ; ex- 

 ceptions, however, were spoken of. 



Usually there is a considerable difference in the ages of the wives. 

 The second wife of the 100-year-old man was younger than the 

 children of his first wife. 



More often than not each wife occupied — as they do today — a 

 separate ruka; ruka in such cases were usually not far apart. If two 

 or more lived in one, its fireplace was either shared by them or each 



