WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 233 



weave this choapino." (A choapino is not unlike a hooked rug.) 

 She next twirled sufficient yarn slightly to make a soft cord. With it 

 she fastened the heddle to the odd strands by passing it around the 

 heddle and then around a strand. Then she inserted a sword above 

 the heddle so that all even-numbered strands were on one side and all 

 odd-numbered ones on the other and pushed the sword upward a 

 little. This was done to give some tautness to the strands. She used 

 another sword to beat down the woof while weaving. 



She now filled a shuttle by winding a strand of the yarn a few 

 times around one end of it, then moving directly to the other end and 

 winding it around that end several times, and from then on moving 

 back and forth from end to end until she thought the shuttle still light 

 enough in weight to be shot through the sheds without difficulty ; at 

 this point she wound the yarn around one end of the shuttle several 

 times and severed the strand from the ball by tearing it. She filled 

 several shuttles in the same manner, then wove a rather loose founda- 

 tion by the ordinary weaving technique. This done, she worked short 

 pieces of yarn down and back between woof and warp, and tied each 

 one. She had cut these short pieces from skeins she had dyed in 

 various colors. As she worked, she selected the color that filled in a 

 design she was working out — "the design is in my mind; you will 

 see it when I have made it." Plate 59, j, shows the design and the 

 completed choapino. Choapino usually have overlapping rows of 

 fringes on both ends, which are generally of the same color as the 

 foundation into which the design is worked, that is, either white or 

 brown. They are also separate pieces of yarn, but are decidedly longer 

 than those used in the design. Proportions are usually 22 inches of a 

 design and 1 1 inches of fringe at each end. 



A 19-year-old Conaripe girl wove a blanket (pi. 57, 2) of standard 

 size, 4 by 6 feet, for the wife of a Chilean who worked at the lumber 

 camp in another valley. The Chilean husband had ordered it. Both 

 warp and woof were twirled double strands of white yarn. She was 

 weaving two i^-inch wide stripes on each side in purple. "I dyed 

 the yarn with purple dye the Chilean brought me," she explained. 

 "When I have this blanket woven, I shall weave a poncho for my 

 father. Ponchos must be woven very tight so that no rain can get 

 through and no wind bother the person." 



Lama are woven of heavy twirled double strands of wool yarn by 

 the same technique as blankets. After they are removed from the 

 loom they are usually combed with the thistles of a hard, dried seed 

 pod (not identified) to give them a nap. The woof at both ends forms 



