WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER l8l 



they began to move backward along the edge of both sides of the tray. 

 While the kernels were thus on the move, the wind removed the chaff. 

 Occasionally the girl halted to throw off ears that turned up, and to 

 stir the kernels with her hands to find more. When chaff and ears 

 had been removed from all, she poured the kernels into a basket and 

 walked back to the ruka to prepare them for the family's midday 

 meal. (Cf, pp. 206-209 for the preparation of them.) Threshing and 

 winnowing took 40 minutes. 



Today, every family that has a right to own land in an area raises 

 wheat on one or several pieces of it, either on burnt-over land or in 

 natural glades. These differ in size and shape (pis. i ; 35, 7 and 2). 

 No informant knew how much land he had under cultivation. Point- 

 ing out his fields, he might say, 'T believe I have about two dareas 

 here, and one over there. Darea is a word we got from the Chileans, 

 and is used only at harvest time. It is a piece of land, the amount 

 of grain on which approximates what a man can cut by hand in a 

 day. We use it only when hiring a man to help us." A woman 

 listening in interjected, "If one hurries a little, two dareas can be 

 cut in one day." "In this area [Cofiaripe] a darea is a piece of land 

 approximately 80 meters square." A Boroa man stretched an arm, and 

 noted that from his chest to the tip of his hand approximated a vara, 

 and added, 'T think a darea is 70 by 50 varas. In our area, because 

 of the contour of the land, a darea is usually longer than it is wide." 

 Fields are not fertilized, but are allowed to lie fallow for one or two 

 years. 



Agricultural implements formerly used, according to Gunkel, were 

 a wooden pick (chopen) made either of luma or temu, a wooden spade, 

 and perforated stones (catancura). (Cf. Gunkel, 1944, pp. 3i5"32i 

 for complete description.) Catancura were used in smashing lumps 

 of earth turned up with pick or spade. Although metal hoes and spades 

 have replaced the wooden ones, all three wooden implements were seen 

 during the present study, and were being used in gardening. Fields 

 were being plowed with plows drawn by oxen (pi. 34). There were 

 a few plows with an iron share ; all others had wooden shares. Neigh- 

 bors borrowed plows from each other. 



Wheat was the only small grain I saw cultivated. Seeding is done 

 by hand. If a man does not have sufficient seed, another will arrange 

 with him for the amount he needs, in which case the harvest is shared, 

 in accordance with an old custom. In Boroa area, "if one man fur- 

 nishes the land and another the seed, each receives half of the harvest; 

 if each furnishes half the seed, and one the land, each also receives 

 half the harvest." In Conaripe, while I was there, one man furnished 



