WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 201 



Foods such as meat and fish and the stomach of sheep are slung 

 over the raft or pole and there dried or smoked. Bunches of corn 

 on the cob were seen astride the crossbars, and foods that must be 

 kept dry, such as salt and flour, hung from them in containers. 



Implements, probably traditional ones, used in the preparation and 

 serving of food were seen in many households. Among them were 

 wooden spoons, ladles, bowls, tumblers, mauls, and mortars ; stone 

 mortars, pestles, metates, and muUers; earthenware ones, such as 

 cantaros and ollas ; those made of parts of animals, such as cups, 

 spoons, containers, and sieves; and those woven of plant fibers, 

 namely, baskets and winnowing trays. All the above are made "by 

 those who know how; not every family makes its own. One must 

 have not only the intelligence to make them, but one must know how 

 to make them and have the implements with which to make them." 

 "I know how to make them," said the 52-year-old man, "but I do not 

 have the necessary tools to do so." Kitchen implements of non- 

 Araucanian origin in use were the 3- footed iron kettle, found in every 

 ruka; knives and spoons; enamel or porcelain cups, plates, pitchers, 

 and bowls ; dishpans of tin ; galvanized pails ; and both iron and copper 

 teakettles. 



Of wooden utensils (pi. 42), spoons (pichana) are approximately 

 16 to 22 inches in length and have either a round or oval-shaped scoop 

 I to 2 inches deep. These are used for stirring and for dipping foods. 

 Stirring is also done with sticks of hard wood (wutrii). Wooden 

 ladles (rashwe) are used for lifting hot foods, such as tortillas. 

 Wooden bowls (ral'i) serve primarily as nonleakable dishes. They 

 were seen being used for washing meat and vegetables, mixing food, 

 soaking wash, carrying just-dyed hot yarn, threshing grain by feet, 

 and for storage. Bowls are hewn out of cross sections of tree trunks 

 big enough to permit two handles, and are from 6 to 9 inches in depth. 

 The openings of round ones approximate 15 to 18 inches in diameter; 

 trapezoidal ones, 12 by 18 to 15 by 22 inches. Wooden tumblers 

 are used, today, exclusively for drinking mudai at the qillatun. A 

 wooden tumbler exhibited in the Museo Araucano de Temuco (speci- 

 men No. 460) is 5 inches in height, nearly 3 inches in depth, and 

 2^ inches in diameter at the opening. The maul (trawaunakgmwe), 

 a piece of wood cut down to form a ball-like club at the end of a 

 handle, is used for cracking or breaking bones, for jerking meats, 

 cracking araucaria pine nuts, and for other similar operations. 



Mortars (tranachadwe or katankura) and pestles (kudi) (pi. 43, 

 I, 2, 5) were used to grind and mix condiments, especially salt and 

 chili. A few mortars were of wood; generally they are of lava stone, 



