WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 27I 



THE mother's bath, THE BABY's BATH 



Formerly, immediately following delivery the mother took her child 

 to a stream where, holding the child, she walked into the cold water, 

 if need be breaking thin ice to do so. An occasional woman does so 

 today. A non-Araucanian told of rising one morning to find her 

 Araucanian woman servant returning, in a rather heavy snowfall, 

 from a river where she had just taken a bath and had given one to her 

 child, born during the night ; she had to break the ice on the river to 

 do so. The servant prepared the breakfast and went about her daily 

 work as usual. (Customarily, the women refrained from work for 

 three or four days following delivery.) "That happened 30 years ago 

 [1922]," said the non-Araucanian. "But I have heard it told often 

 since that the Araucanian women still take these cold baths and bathe 

 their babies at the same time right after deHvery." A listening-in 

 Araucanian woman in her sixties was not of the same opinion : "That 

 was true formerly; but most women today could not do that; they 

 are too delicate; they would die. I know my daughters could not 

 do it." 



Old informants firmly believed that it was this first cold bath that 

 kept the baby well and strong, and noted that none ever died from the 

 cold bath. The first bath of most children today is one of clear luke- 

 warm water in a large wooden dish used for household purposes. It 

 is given immediately following birth by the woman who assists at 

 the delivery. 



POSTNATAL INTERESTS 

 EAR PIERCING 



Formerly, the child's ears were pierced when it was given its name ; 

 today, generally, only a girl's ears are pierced. Noses and lips were 

 not pierced : "Never ! Never !" Usually the piercing was done within 

 a month following birth, because it was believed the child felt no pain 

 in its ear lobes at that age and no swelling resulted ; if the child was 

 much older, its ear lobes often became sore. Sometimes, however, this 

 was not done until the child was much older — in some instances as 

 old as 18 years. 



Obviously the piercer was not a conventional person. According 

 to some old informants it was the mother of the child who pierced the 

 ears of her own child ; according to others, just as old, any relative 

 might do so. In general, a woman pierced a girl's ears ; a man, a boy's. 



Piercing was done in the ear lobe from top downward with a sewing 

 needle, "or something like a needle — we used to have a needlelike 



