WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 315 



Formalized conversation, probably the koyaqtun, was carried on 

 when a woman's relatives, including her immediate family, came to 

 visit her for the first time after her marriage (cf. pp. 331-332). 



Informants, now old, were told stories connected with wars — 

 usually those between Araucanians and Argentines — when they were 

 children. An informant, when a young girl, was told the following 

 by her mother : 



An Araucanian girl had a child by an Argentine soldier, but another Argentine 

 soldier wanted the girl. The girl tucked her child under her poncho and rode 

 away with the one that was not the father of her child. After some time they 

 were hungry, but they had nothing to eat. So the man stole a horse. They found 

 a cave and lived in it. Here they cut large pieces of meat ofif the horse, but they 

 broiled them in another cave, one close to a nearby lake. The cave was in such a 

 position that people could not see the fire they made in it ; they did not want to be 

 discovered. The girl could have eaten the meat raw, but the man not — he was 

 not an Araucanian. 



"My mother would cry when she would tell me such stories," 

 Certain legends were told to children, but children were usually 



listeners-in to those intended for adults. One legend told to children 



is the following: 



Inga — some say Inca — sent word, saying, "Children, your God is captured. 

 He must die unless sufficient gold and silver are collected to fill three rooms ; 

 do all you can to collect both, and send them to me." All the Araucanians gave 

 whatever they could, their finest things in gold and silver. They collected all 

 these in one place. It took a long time to do so. Then they looked for slaves 

 to carry the load over the mountains. They were finally on their way. But a 

 great difficulty had soon to be faced : they found snow in the mountains. Just 

 when this difficulty seemed insurmountable, they met Araucanians from other 

 mountains. These said, "Do not go any farther ; Inca has died. And do not 

 sell or give your gold and silver to the Whites." So they dug a large hole on 

 the top of one of the motmtains, pushed the gold and silver into it, and then 

 onto these they pushed all the slaves. Next they pushed a big mountain over it 

 all. No one now knows where the place is. So runs the legend, as told by some. 

 Others say that the slaves with their loads of gold and silver were pushed down 

 a smooth ledge of stone on the side of the mountain where it can still be seen 

 resembling a slide. It ends in Lake Currhue Chico. At the place where the ledge 

 enters the lake, the water is very deep and is dark in appearance. The gold and 

 silver, wherever they are, so says the legend, worked their way toward the sur- 

 face of the earth, a hair's breadth each year, until the Whites came into the area. 

 Since then the gold and silver have sunk deeper, but in all probability, when the 

 Whites leave here, they will again move upward. 



Kolupan told a legend with a historical background as related to 

 him by his father when he, Kolupan, was a child. In recent years 

 Kolupan has told it to children in his neighborhood : 



West of Hua Hum, there was formerly a lake in addition to Lake Pirehueico 

 which is still there. About 300 years ago an earthquake split the earth wide 



