200 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



and the middle of the ruka to prevent heating the back section of the 

 ruka where potatoes and wheat are usually stored. No family in the 

 areas studied had a factory-made stove, nor even an improvised one. 



Firewood may be either split wood of desired lengths — piles of it 

 were seen near a few ruka — or dried tree stumps, or a log several 

 yards long. One end of the log is placed in the fire and shoved 

 along as it burns down. Tree stumps are preferred for in-between- 

 cooking fires because they burn slowly and long. All wood is laid at 

 the edge of the fire, never on top of it. 



Ulmo, because it is a hard, nearly smokeless wood, is preferred as 

 firewood. Other woods used are roble chileno, coihiie, and olivillo. 

 The last is the least desirable as it creates so much smoke. In Boroa 

 area, a nearly treeless region, large quantities of driftwood are col- 

 lected in spring after the floods of rivers fed by mountain streams 

 have subsided. Should a Boroa area family run short of firewood 

 before the driftwood is available, it will fell trees found on the banks 

 of streams in the area ; this wood, however, is usually not the smoke- 

 less kind. 



According to Cooper's sources (1946, p. 718) a hand drill was 

 used in the early days to start a fire: the hearth was held on the 

 ground by the feet while the drill was twirled with the hands. Flint 

 and steel, and then matches, followed the hand drill. A 70-year-old 

 PanguipuUi man had never seen a fire started except with matches, 

 which are being used in all areas today. 



Kettles used in cooking are hung over the fireplace, either from a 

 raft suspended from the rafters, 5 to 6 feet above the fire, or from 

 a horizontal pole supported at each end by poles planted in the floor 

 on opposite sides of the fireplace. The position of the horizontal pole 

 is in line with the length of the ruka. In several small ruka the pole 

 had been fastened to scantlings that supported the roof. The raft, 

 usually square, is made of boards or saplings. Crossbars of boards 

 or sapling are tied to the frame with voqui. 



Kettles are suspended from the end of a chain or a stout wire. If 

 a wire is used, its ends are bent to form hooks, the upper one being 

 placed over the pole or raft and the kettle htmg on the lower one. If 

 a chain is used, the lower part of a stout S-shaped wire is placed into 

 the upper link of the chain and the upper part over the pole or raft. A 

 second S-shaped wire is used to suspend the kettle from any link along 

 the chain, depending on how near to the fire the kettle is to be. A chain 

 with S-shaped wires is preferred because of the adjustability to 

 various heights. 



