WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER I99 



sionally money is borrowed from a fellow Araucanian with the agree- 

 ment, usually, that wheat may be substituted in repayment. 



A 39-year-old Alepue man had been told that his father's grand- 

 father and the grandfather's brother, when they were young men, had 

 spent 5 years in Argentina earning money by catching iiandu (emu) 

 and plucking their large feathers, which were in demand for European 

 markets and brought a good price. They caught the nandii with a 

 boleodora. "It was thrown something like a lasso is thrown today. 

 The bird, by a twist of its head, tried to get away, but in doing so 

 wound the rope around its neck. They also earned money by selling 

 wool they sheared off guanacos, a wild sheeplike animal, and by 

 herding sheep for Argentine owners. For herding sheep, they were 

 paid with half of the newborn lambs. Some Mapuche married in 

 Argentina, and never returned to Chile. Others returned with the 

 money they had earned and bought up land. From then on they were 

 the rich men among the Mapuche." 



Alepue children to whom I had given pesos for stories they wrote, 

 for specimens of plants they collected, for running errands, and for 

 being helpful in other ways, were asked by their teacher the following 

 week how they had spent their money. One of the boys had given 

 it to his mother to buy sugar ; another had cleared a debt he owed the 

 teacher for a notebook and a pencil ; two had bought for themselves 

 a bottle of pop at a fiesta; another had given his to an older brother 

 who bought himself cigarettes with it. One of the girls had bought 

 a handkerchief ; another, candy ; still another added hers to the money 

 that she was saving to buy a dress. "A child is expected to earn 

 money for its own clothing," noted their teacher. "Girls spin wool 

 which the father then sells and uses the money to buy their clothes." 



FOOD, SHELTER, CLOTHING 

 COOKERY, IMPLEMENTS, FOOD, MEALS 



Foods are eaten uncooked, boiled, roasted, and baked. Cooking 

 today, as formerly, is done over a fire maintained in a shallow hollow 

 in the earth floor of the ruka, or in the ground, if cooking is done out- 

 doors, as it usually is when the weather permits. On two sides of the 

 fireplace, usually at right angles, level with the floor or ground, stones 

 are laid. A few of these are large flat ones that serve as a table 

 for the cook, and also as a place on which to keep food warm. 

 The stones about the fireplace serve as heaters when the fire is only 

 smoldering — "it feels comfortable to sit near one on a cold, damp 

 day." The location of the fireplace in the ruka is between the door 



