I 



WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 3OI 



In the early days stealing from people who lived in the jurisdiction 

 of one's own cacique was taboo; if the cacique was notified of such 

 an act, he ordered the thief to return the stolen thing. Persons, how- 

 ever, sometimes stole from those from another cacique's jurisdiction. 

 Old non-Araucanian men recalled days when a mighty Araucanian 

 cacique from Chile, called Kalfucura, rustled cattle in Argentina from 

 both Araucanians and non-Araucanians and drove them across the 

 Andes to his own lands in Chile. 



Drinking to intoxication, in the early days, was not the customary 

 thing, according to old informants. There was never enough mudai — 

 the early alcoholic beverage — available for many to drink to excess. 

 Chicha, a later intoxicating beverage, provided greater opportunities 

 for intoxication. Wine has replaced both. Non-Araucanians who have 

 lived in Araucanian areas for 20 or more years lament the recent in- 

 crease in wine consumption by both Araucanian men and women. Its 

 demoralizing effects were spoken of by both Araucanians and non- 

 Araucanians. Generally only persons past 40 become intoxicated. 



TEACHING THE CHILD 

 INSTRUCTORS, METHODS OF INSTRUCTIONS 



Parents were the primary instructors of the child, unless the child 

 was being reared in the home of a grandparent or other relative, in 

 which case these replaced the parents. Both fathers and mothers 

 trained both sons and daughters. "We never attended school, but 

 whatever our parents and elders taught us, or advised us to do, we 

 learned, carried out, and remembered." Methods used were those of 

 direct verbal instructions and of letting the child observe and partici- 

 pate in adult activities and share the responsibilities of work. 



In general small children grew up without much interference from 

 elders. During interviews they romped about, but were not noisy. 

 When old enough to comprehend, and thereafter, they were instructed 

 verbally in right living. Quoting a man in his eighties : "My father 

 talked much to us children by way of instruction ; my mother did so 

 less ; she was a quiet person. My father told us among other things 

 not to laugh at the ijillatun [tribal religious ceremonial] ; always to 

 be thankful for what was given to us. He told us that there is life 

 after death in another world ; that after death a person retains certain 

 powers, but that a deceased person does not have as much power as 

 a living person has ; that God has most power of all ; that He is 

 mightiest of all. He told us that he dreamed there is a God and that 

 this God knows all that we say or think ; that this God is everywhere." 



