WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 169 



Caniulaf; and Quele, "but Quele has no predominating family; it 

 did not belong to the Araucanians until recent years." 



In Alepue area, boundaries of witran mapu are creeks, rivers, 

 ravines, and the Pacific Ocean. In Panguipulli and Cofiaripe areas, 

 they are lakes, rivers, and mountain ridges ; in Boroa area, rivers, 

 creeks, ridges of hills, and the Pacific. 



In the early days several witran mapu united into an organization 

 called aillarewe for such joint activities as the qillatun or protection 

 against Spanish invaders. (Cf. Cooper, 1946, pp. 725-726.) An 

 aillarewe was presided over by an outstanding cacique selected by the 

 other caciques of the aillarewe. 



Domingo Huenun of Panguipulli, over 70 years old, recorded in a 

 notebook, at the dictation of his granduncle, Antelef Huetra, an old 

 man, the witran mapu of about 1930. These are given in table 4. The 

 granduncle feared that the knowledge of them would be lost, if not 

 written down somewhere. The witran mapu, the old man said, were 

 those that he knew existed when he was a boy. The same notebook 

 contained the names of past caciques of each unit, "those from very, 

 very early times." In the granduncle's childhood days every boy was 

 expected to be able to recite them from memory. 



Today, as formerly, each witran mapu is headed by a cacique. 

 Formerly, it was customary for the eldest son of a deceased cacique to 

 inherit the position. After the cacique's death, the men of his witran 

 mapu met. Women, also, were often present, and, if they were capable 

 speakers, expressed their opinions at the meeting. Those assembled 

 decided whether the eldest son was fit to be their cacique. If he was 

 not considered an able man, another of the cacique's sons was chosen 

 to fill the vacancy. If it happened that no son was considered fit, a 

 man from another family was selected. "If the son of a cacique was 

 able to speak well, could be relied on to carry messages, and to con- 

 duct meetings, and in general was an intelligent man, he was ap- 

 proved of." 



Today, a meeting is seldom held to scrutinize a candidate's qualifi- 

 cations. In general, the eldest son takes over, either of his own voli- 

 tion or because he is encouraged to do so by interested and outstanding 

 men of his witran mapu or by interested outsiders. When the old 

 cacique of Alepue area died (1941), his 45-year-old son, Jose Manuel 

 Lienlaf, became the recognized cacique "because people went to him 

 for advice and petitioned him to call the people together for a rjillatun. 

 Hualme, the late cacique of Mehuin, had no son to inherit his position, 

 so the oldest man took it upon himself to be the cacique — he is older 

 than 100 years." In 1947 the cacique for Panguipulli was lapan 



