308 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



man in training was sent as messenger by his cacique, or another 

 person, to another cacique. When he was older, he was one of those 

 who delivered addresses and made announcements to the assembled 

 people. Kolupan was trained in oratory by his father. He said of 

 himself : "I was an intelligent young man, full of life and full of 

 energy. My father recognized my intelligence and taught me how to 

 speak. He would give me an order to go somewhere, maybe to a 

 cacique, and then tell me exactly what I was to say. I had to repeat 

 to him what he had said and in the same tone of voice in which he 

 had said it. In this way I learned not only how to carry messages to 

 men of importance, like caciques, and how to deliver an address, but 

 also how to speak good Araucanian. — I cannot pronounce words well 

 today, because I have lost my front teeth. — Caciques to whom I was 

 sent always received me with much courtesy. This gave me a feeling 

 of distinction. I was about 22 years old when I first began to carry 

 messages between caciques. I had great respect for my father. He 

 was a most intelligent man." 



COUNTING 



There is no zero. Numerals in Argentine Araucanian are given in 

 table 7. (See table i for Chilean Araucanian numerals.) 



Table 7. — Numerals in Araucanian {Argentina) 



1 kine 10 mari 50 kechu-mari 



2 epu II mari-kine 60 kayu-mari 



3 kiila (or kla) 12 mari-epu 70 reqle-mari 



4 meli 13 mari-kiila (or mari-kia) 80 pura-mari 



5 kechu 20 epu-mari 90 ailla-mari 



6 kayii 21 epu-mari-kine 100 pataka 



7 reqle 22 epu-mari-epu 200 epu-pataka 



8 pura 30 kla-mari 300 kla-pataka 



9 ailla 40 meli-mari 1,000 waraqka 



Children count on their fingers; if the number is greater than 10, 

 they count on toes also. Adults were seen counting by touching the 

 fingernails of one hand for counting to 5, then touching the second 

 knuckles of the same hand for counting to 10, and the fingernails and 

 knuckles of the other hand for numbers greater than 10. Counting 

 was generally done from thumb to little finger. "If I were young and 

 agile and barefoot," said a 50-year-old man, 'T would use my toes to 

 count from 10 to 20" — something other adults said was seldom done 

 except by children. 



