282 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



Argentine taken into captivity by the Araucanians related the follow- 

 ing : "My father was 13 years old when he was captured by our people. 

 A cacique took him into his family and reared him. Later he married 

 my mother, a pure Araucanian, a daughter of a cacique. Before I 

 was born the Argentine army again came upon our people. My 

 parents and others fled to Chile. Here I was born." An Araucanian 

 who was taken captive by the Argentine army when he was only a 

 small boy was taken to Buenos Aires where he was reared, married, 

 and lived. "But he never forgot who his own people were. When I 

 was 10 years old he asked my mother [the man's sister] to let me 

 come to his home in Buenos Aires. I went. When I was 22 years old 

 I came back here to my mother, along with other Araucanians who 

 were coming back from Buenos Aires." 



Araucanian women, too, were taken captive. "We were four girls 

 in our family. I remember well when the army pounced upon us 

 and kidnaped one of my sisters. She was 10 years old then. We 

 never saw her again." The interpreter noted, "I know of a number 

 of White women here [San Martin de los Andes] who were captured 

 by the Araucanians as children ; after they grew up they did not wish 

 to return to their people. They stayed among the Araucanians and 

 liked it." 



NAMES 



NAMING A CHILD, ORIGIN OF NAMES, PERSONAL NAMES 



As previously stated, the child was given a name at the time its ears 

 were pierced (p. 271), but there was no set age at which the event 

 took place. Until a boy received his name he was called "little man" 

 (piche wentru) ; a girl, "little woman" (pichi domo). 



At present only a few children are given an Araucanian name. 

 Since most children today are baptized and are given a Spanish name 

 on that occasion, "there is no purpose in giving the child its name 

 in the old way." A child that has not been baptized when its birth is 

 recorded (registration of births is required by law) will be given a 

 Spanish name by the recording officer. "That boy was given the 

 name of Salustiano when five years old by the Argentine officer when 

 I had his birth recorded. I had not yet had him baptized ; nor had he 

 been given an Araucanian name." 



The child's Araucanian name was selected either by one or both 

 of its parents. "They chose the one they liked. My parents had a 

 friend named Traipe ; consequently they gave me his name. When I 

 was in the Argentine military service, the officer said that I could not 

 use that name, and he gave me the name Pedro, the name he liked 



