WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 255 



soned and fried or cooked with vegetables ; and stomach and entrails, 

 either fresh or smoked. Since fresh meat is available when desired, 

 meat is not stored ; an oversupply is dried over the fire and eaten 

 soon afterward. Fish are baked or smoked. Favored dishes are pre- 

 pared from shellfish and sea algae. Butter and eggs are not relished ; 

 milk is made into cheese in a manner learned from non-Araucanians. 



Drinking water is brought from springs — rukas are built where 

 there is an uncontaminated, clear, cool spring. At the end of a meal 

 yerba mate is drunk, unless chicha is at hand ; in the early days mudai 

 was the beverage. 



Formerly, two meals were eaten each day, a custom which still 

 prevails. All the family eats together, seated around the fireplace 

 either on folded sheep pelts or on low benches, stools, or tree-trunk 

 sections. A woman serves her husband first, then the children, then 

 herself. 



The ruka, the home of the Araucanian, is generally smaller today 

 than formerly, for the prevailing monogamous marriages no longer 

 require ruka to house a man's several families. An occasional family 

 today has two ruka, one for sleeping and storage and one for cook- 

 ing and working. Three types of ruka were observed during the 

 present study : one completely of thatch, one with roof of thatch and 

 sides of planks, and one with sides of planks and roof of logs. Ruka 

 today, in general, are rectangular in ground plan, and gable-roofed 

 or lean-to in shape; formerly, according to Cooper's sources, they 

 were oval, polygonal, or rectangular in ground plan. 



Ruka have no chimney or windows ; each has one entrance — some 

 have several. More than one entrance permits the one facing unfavor- 

 able winds to be closed. Men assist each other in building the ruka. 

 At the completion of one, a plentiful meal is served, and usually there 

 is excessive drinking of chicha. A ruka belongs to the family, but is 

 spoken of as belonging to the father. 



The interior of a ruka is unfinished. It is lighted and heated by the 

 fireplace which is usually a little to the front of the middle of the ruka. 

 In this location the heat does not reach potatoes and wheat stored 

 in the rear. Sleeping is done in corners and along walls, on pelts on 

 the ground, unless the family has a second ruka used for sleeping. Oc- 

 casionally a family has low platform beds. Coverings are homespun 

 and homewoven blankets. A rolled-up poncho or a piece of wood 

 serves as a pillow. 



Storage space is within the ruka, in the rear of it, and on lofts, 

 shelves, and tables. Containers used are boxes, bins, dug-out tree 

 trunks, baskets, netted bags, gourds, animal paunches and udders, 



