192 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



sitting on rocks at the shore, waiting for the men. If the catch is large, 

 they assist in preparing the fish for market — their duty is to clean 

 thoroughly the cavity of the fish after the men have removed the 

 visceral contents. During my visit three men landed with a small 

 catch — a day's work (pi. 41, /, 2) ; one had taken seven fish ; each of 

 the others, two. Since the catch was small, the women merely looked 

 on while the men pulled in their boat, washed their nets, and cleaned 

 the fish. A whiskbroomlike implement of esparto was used in the 

 cleaning. Fish are carried home in netted bags called wilal. 



In former times fishing in Andean streams was usually done at 

 night. Fish, attracted by the light of a torch held over the water's 

 edge, were grabbed at the underside of the head and dropped into a 

 pouch suspended from the fisherman's neck. Kauke (a species of 

 mackerel) were most easily caught in this way. Today, fishing in 

 streams is done with hook and line. 



Women take from the Pacific such shellfish as macha, loko, maiiihue, 

 piure, and ariso. Collecting shellfish is called I'afkentun. Macha bury 

 themselves under the sand. To collect them the woman walks into 

 a sandy place not far from the water's edge, plants a stick in the sand, 

 supports herself by leaning upon it with both hands, and digs both 

 feet into the sand, moving them back and forth until she feels the 

 macha, which she then digs out by hand. 



Loko and mafiihue attach themselves firmly to rocks near the water's 

 edge and are pried loose with a crowbarlike iron implement. One 

 used by a woman was 13 inches long, \ inch thick, 3 inches wide at 

 prying end; with it she loosened the shellfish from all sides; "it is 

 best to detach them from the bottom last, so that you can catch them 

 as they fall." Shellfish, too, are carried home in wilal. 



TRANSPORTATION 



According to Cooper's sources (1946, p. 712), the Araucanians had 

 no roads, only trails; bridges (kuikui), consisting of one or several 

 logs, spanned small streams. The tumpline and fiber bag of simple- 

 loop netting technique were used for carrying goods. The llama served 

 as a pack animal. Soon after the arrival of the Spaniards, the horse 

 was used for land transportation. 



Today anyone wishing to go a short distance, "to the neighbors or 

 to the brook or the woods nearby," walks. From every ruka footpaths 

 lead in several directions — one always leads to the source of water 

 supply. A woman on foot carries light-weight things, maybe vege- 

 tables and ears of grain or herbs, in either a basket (pis. 47, j; 



