WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 1 55 



in the field. Children everywhere volunteered information which 

 agreed with that already obtained from adults regarding fields that 

 had been ruined by witchcraft. Quoting a 14-year-old Alepue boy: 

 "They will then search in the field for meat — it is usually wrapped in 

 a rag and can be found. I have helped to look for such a little package. 

 If they find the meat, they hang it over the edge of the fire in the ruka 

 so that it will dry up. This will cause the one who buried it to dry 

 up, also. Others stick it full of needles and lay it in the sun. The 

 one who did the damage then feels the pain of the needles. Soon he 

 begins to feel sick ; and soon after that a terrible sickness will come 

 over him which will give him the sensation of needles in his body. 

 His entire body will tremble. If the sun shines, he will go out and 

 stay in the hot sunshine" (something not done by sane persons). A 

 12-year-old boy, a listener-in, explained : "The kalku can use eggs in 

 place of meat, if he wishes to; but usually meat is used. After the 

 bewitched meat or eggs are in the field for several days, the wheat in 

 that field either turns yellow or shrivels up. If they find the buried 

 meat, they will hang it over the fire and cause the person who did the 

 damage to shrivel up just like the wheat shriveled up. But if the one 

 whose field was injured does not wish to take revenge, but is forgiving, 

 he will throw the meat into a river — people can find out at the machitun 

 who is responsible for the damage ; for example, the machi will say 

 that such and such a neighbor is. If the family wants to take revenge, 

 however, it may then decide to hire a kalku to do injury to that neigh- 

 bor by spoiling his wheat field." "I asked our neighbor, one day," 

 said a non-Araucanian teacher, "why a certain man was losing weight 

 perceptibly. He answered that the man had planted eggs or meat in 

 somebody's wheat field, and that he was now reaping the result of 

 his evil deed. He then told of an old woman near here who was 

 burying eggs and meat in her brother-in-law's land and was caught 

 in the act. The brother-in-law immediately dug up the meat and hung 

 it over the fire. Then the woman took sick with asthma, and began 

 to lose weight ; she was sick for two years. By that time the man had 

 pity on his brother (the husband of the woman) and threw the meat 

 into the creek. As the meat took on shape slowly by absorbing water, 

 the woman gradually got better, and finally got well. This happened 

 six years ago [1940]." In Panguipulli area retaliation by shriveling 

 the bewitched meat is not known. A common form of revenge there 

 is to poke two sticks at right angles through one of the eggs found 

 in the field and then to hang the egg over the fire. In consequence the 

 one who did the damage to the field will become blind or have an arm 

 paralyzed. 



