248 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



and adults. These included tag, tossing a handkerchief, spinning tops, 

 "play of the rooster," marbles, quoits, hockey, and football. 



Toys, including dolls, were not part of the Araucanian child's play 

 life; sticks and stones, chicks and kittens were. Imitative play, such 

 as riding horses, playing house, or visiting, and playing getting drunk, 

 are favorite pastimes of small children. Older boys play with marbles, 

 balls, and tops. Older girls mold marbles, miniature pottery, and 

 whorls for spindles. 



In general, children like animals and treat them kindly. Chicks and 

 kittens may be pets ; lambs seldom are ; dogs, never — not even of 

 older boys ; older boys favor horses. Very rarely is a wild animal 

 tamed and enjoyed as a pet; rabbits, never. Children identify wild 

 birds and tell of animals that talk to each other. 



According to Cooper's sources Araucanians were excellent swim- 

 mers and divers. Today every boy and girl learns to ride horseback. 

 Boys shoot with slingshots. 



Health. — Maintaining the good will of others so that sickness will 

 not be brought upon one by them, and chasing the spirits of ill health 

 from the area by means of a shamanistic performance are the only 

 preventives of ill health known. All ill health is believed to be in- 

 flicted by poisoning or by persons who are believed to have power to 

 do so through black art. 



Midwives, professed herbalists, and machi (shamans, both men and 

 women) possess knowledge of medicinal herbs, roots, and barks. 

 Such knowledge originates in dreams ; it can be shared with others or 

 be bought by them. Household remedies are known to lay persons. 

 Curatives are decoctions, poultices, heat, vapor baths, inhalations, and 

 bloodletting. Curatives not used are bloodcupping, sweating in a 

 sweat lodge, and tattooing. Personal sacrifice and change of name 

 are not resorted to as restorative measures. Sick children are treated 

 in the same manner as adults, except that decoctions are weaker. 



A machi is called upon to perform when home curatives have failed. 

 In rare instances a machi performs over a sick child. The performance 

 is at night. 



A machi studies to be a professional one of his own volition, or 

 because parents choose the profession as a life's work for a child, or 

 because of a compulsive dream. Shamanistic procedures are learned 

 during an apprenticeship with a professional shaman, but a candidate 

 can learn new skills independently from some invisible source and also 

 enhance them by exchange with other shamans. Shamanistic powers 

 are renewed annually when the copihues are in bloom. 



Psychosis is rare. It is believed to be brought about by the will of 



