246 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



play, or by actual participation, and by listening in and being non- 

 participant observers. Demonstrations and diagrams are used to 

 clarify instructions. Once old enough to comprehend, the child is 

 taught with intent. Having to repeat information is resented; chil- 

 dren are ordered to concentrate upon a thing to be learned. 



A child is expected to do the usual things without praise or reward ; 

 extraordinary things are praised and, occasionally, rewarded. Small 

 children are corrected with "hstch" ; older ones are spoken to in sub- 

 dued, sometimes stern, words. A child that has reached the age of 

 reason is taught to conform to accepted standards of behavior, and is 

 obliged to do so, by coercion if necessary. Rarely is a child threatened 

 with punishment by supernatural powers, frightened, ridiculed, ig- 

 nored, mocked, nagged, coaxed, bribed, or compared with other chil- 

 dren, in order to force it to conform. Parents are aware that children 

 vary in response to training. No explanation was given for a difficult 

 child. 



At present, children have opportunities to attend either private or 

 public schools directed by the Chilean department of education. At- 

 tendance is compulsory, and all children attend for at least several 

 years. Parents are more interested in having their sons than their 

 daughters attend school, for sons must be prepared to deal with 

 Chileans. 



Mental training. — Araucanian is spoken in homes, unless one parent 

 is non-Araucanian. Dialectic differences occur from area to area. 

 Many children learn at home to read and write Araucanian. Teaching 

 in school is done in Spanish. 



Oratory, the ability to carry on formal conversation, and facility 

 in speaking well at any time, are held in esteem. Formerly, every boy 

 was given training in all three ; today many are still so trained. Sons 

 of caciques were given special training in oratory and memorizing. 



The Araucanian system of counting has no zero. Schoolboys were 

 able to count from i to i,ooo in their language. Beginners in school 

 use fingers of both hands when counting, and continue on toes, if the 

 number exceeds ten. No method of keeping count was known to in- 

 formants of the present study. Cooper's informants reported the use 

 of the knotted cord. 



The time of day is reckoned by the position of the sun, or the 

 location of sunrays ; shadows are not taken into account in telling 

 time. On cloudy or rainy days, hunger indicates the approximate time 

 of day. At night, time is calculated either before or after the moon 

 at zenith. Days are not grouped into weeks. The moon regulates a 

 span of time equivalent to months, but it is doubtful that the months 



