226 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



soap sparingly, "because none is needed ; the water seems to have 

 no hardening minerals in it" (Alepue area). 



The article to be washed is placed on the rock or slat, and is slapped 

 with a flat, long-handled, wooden ladle (pi. 42, 6), made in one piece 

 to lessen the chance of its being broken. After the article has been well 

 slapped, it is rinsed by being swished back and forth in running water. 

 Slapping and rinsing is repeated until the article is clean. Persons 

 more often kneel than stand while washing. The wash is carried 

 home wet and is hung on bushes and fences to dry. Ironing today is 

 done in the rural Chilean way — either with a flatiron heated directly 

 on glowing coals, or with charcoal irons into which burning coals 

 are placed. 



DOMESTIC HANDICRAFTS 



SPINNING, DYEING, WEAVING 



Several days before sheep are sheared they are washed with a decoc- 

 tion of leaves of canelo, which the women pour on while the men 

 work the wool with the hands. "This decoction makes a good foam 

 and certainly washes the sheep clean." Both men and women shear 

 sheep. 



The sheared wool is hung on fences where it generally stays until 

 it is needed for weaving some article. The woman then pours boiling 

 water over it and takes it to the brook or river where she works it 

 well with her hands in the swift running water and swishes it vigor- 

 ously back and forth so that "all dirt and little sticks will get out of 

 it and float away." No soap is needed — "the oil in the wool cleans the 

 wool." The wool is thoroughly dried on fences in the sun. 



Formerly all women and girls, and many boys 10 years and older, 

 spun wool into yarn ; today, boys seldom do. Men rarely did so 

 formerly, and fewer do so today. Wool that is to be spun is disen- 

 tangled and pulled into long wads by women and children, both boys 

 and girls. The spindle (himkun) (pi. 57, i) is a single smooth, 

 rounded piece of wood slightly grooved near the upper end and 

 weighted with a whorl (pishoi) near the lower end. "I made my 

 spindle from a board that was lying around," said an Alepue woman, 

 "and this whorl I made a year ago. I had some pottery material left 

 after making an oUa, and so I made several whorls from it." Her 

 spindle was 17 inches long and ij inches in diameter; the whorl, dis- 

 coid in shape, 2 inches in diameter and -f inch thick. Spindles I saw 

 measured between 16 and 21 inches in length, and ^ to i-| inches in 

 diameter. Whorls were either circular, discoid, or trapezoidal and 

 were 2 inches in diameter and approximately f inch thick. 



