WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 205 



the salty water of the ocean, and this is still done today, if the house- 

 hold supply of salt has run out. 



The nut of the avellano — a tree found in the Andean valleys — is 

 eaten by children ; seldom by adults. Everywhere pigs, released from 

 pens, were seen running their snouts through grass under the trees in 

 search of these nuts. "We know where ripe ones are when we see 

 where the pigs are enjoying them," said a little girl. The nuts of the 

 Chilean coniferous pine, known as the araucaria (pi, 37, 5, 4) have 

 always been a favorite staple food. When the wheat crop is insuffi- 

 cient, "like this year" (1947), said the Conaripe informant, "they are 

 almost a necessity." Families set out for the araucaria groves after the 

 wheat has been harvested. The araucaria is found on the slopes of the 

 Andean Cordillera and on a ridge of the Coastal Range between the 

 rivers Bio Bio and Bueno, at a height of about 3,000 feet. By the 

 time a tree bears cones, it is from 75 to 150 feet tall, and the cones 

 will be far beyond the reach of man. When the kernels have matured, 

 some fall to the ground and others are shaken out of the cones by 

 strong winds. Cones never empty entirely at one time. The greatest 

 harvest, however, will come when the season has so far advanced that 

 the small green parrots, which were a pest when fields and gardens 

 were being seeded, return in flocks. These land on the trees and peck 

 the cones for kernels for their own consumption, causing all the 

 ripened kernels to fall to the ground where they can be gathered by 

 man. If there is an abundance of kernels, those not needed for home 

 consumption are sold to Chilean stores. "Chileans, too, like these 

 nuts." 



A 52-year-old Cofiaripe man told the following regarding araucaria 

 nut harvesting: "The araucaria grow in groves of varying numbers; 

 groves are usually some distance apart ; one might be here where I live, 

 another at Lake Pelaifa [40 minutes' walk], another halfway between 

 these two, the next one at Llancahue [an hour's walk], and so on. Up 

 in the Cordillera, just opposite the Volcano Villarrica, there is a grove, 

 and three ruka have been built there ; that is where I take my family. 

 In another place not far from there, is another grove with seven ruka. 

 We have built several ruka in each grove, the number depending on 

 the size of the grove. A man may take his family to one of these 

 groves, and find that all the ruka there are already occupied. If there 

 is still room for his family in a ruka already occupied, they may sleep 

 in it, but build their fire and do their cooking outside. If there is no 

 room, the man will find a ruka in another grove. Families do not 

 gather nuts under the same trees each year ; anyone can go any place 

 he wishes to. The time to leave home to collect the nuts is when the 



