WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE HILGER 299 



customs than I do. And his brother, the cacique, knows less. How 

 can he know? He spent 30 years of his life in Buenos Aires; he was 

 taken there as a captive by the soldiers when he was still a boy." 



Quarreling was probably a less frequent afifair formerly than it is 

 today ; in the early days persons were given specific training as chil- 

 dren in living agreeably together. An informant in her eighties found 

 her young daughter-in-law, who lived in the same house with her, 

 quarrelsome, "like too many young people today are. Instead of 

 quarreling with her, I told my son to move away from here. And I 

 have already told my youngest son to live away from here, too, when 

 he marries." 



Murder by violence was a rare thing ; death caused by poisoning as 

 revenge was a rather frequent affair ; death as a penalty was institu- 

 tional (cf. p. 348). A non-Araucanian missionary knew it to be a 

 verified fact that dehydrated frogs and lizards and certain plants were 

 used as poisons in revenge. An Araucanian in his eighties, when a 

 young man, had been told by his father not to use poison ; his father 

 wanted his children to be "clean" people. "That is why I do not 

 know many poisons. The only one I know is fanapue ; it is made from 

 the gall of frogs, and it is deadly." He continued, "We poisoned our 

 own people ; but an enemy in war, for whom we had a hatred because 

 of his cruelty or otherwise, we knocked down, held him down, and 

 while he was still living, we took out his heart, cut it into pieces, and 

 threw the pieces in all directions. This was our revenge." When asked 

 if the pieces were eaten, he answered with emphasis, "No, no, no ; we 

 never did that." Cannibalism was not part of the Araucanian culture. 



Profane expressions were not used ; words of imprecation and insult 

 were. After some persuasion, and having been assured that no person 

 present would take offense, since his words would not be directed 

 toward anyone in particular, a 51 -year-old man gave the following 

 as samples of imprecations : "Look out. Be careful of what you say, 

 or great harm will come on you [probably a threat of witchcraft]," 

 and, "I heard your words. And now I want to know why you spoke 

 badly about me," and, "You have a wekufii [equivalent of devil] in 

 you. And now you want to do me harm." A 59-year-old woman 

 would not give samples of insulting expressions ; they were too ugly, 

 she noted. After some hesitation, she said, "They are very ugly in- 

 deed ; they are about sex, A man says them to a woman, and a woman 

 can say them to a man about his sex, too. I cannot tell you all the bad 

 things that we say to each other when we get angry." 



Occasionally suicide was, and still is, committed. The woman hangs 

 herself; the man cuts his throat with a knife, or stabs "his heart 



