324 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



they call them curandero (quacks) ; herbalists are respected; they are 

 often spoken of as yerbaderas (dealers in herbs). Machi and herbal- 

 ists were of both sexes. 



The machi exercised liis curative powers during a performance 

 known as machitun. It was performed over any sick person, including 

 infants. "Sometimes the machi cured people ; sometimes he made 

 them worse." Previous to the performance of a machitun, a substan- 

 tial price in animals had to be promised. Today, the machitun is for- 

 bidden by Argentine law; occasionally, however, it is performed 

 under cover. The machi beats the kultrui], screams and sings ; holds 

 a knife in the fire until well heated and passes it over his lower lip 

 without burning the lip ; and discovers the cause of the sickness by 

 asking the sick person, through another, an intermediary, about the 

 symptoms. In Malleo area a woman machi orders a black pullet to be 

 brought, directs the sick person to spit into the pullet's mouth while she 

 herself holds its bill apart, then kills the pullet immediately, opens 

 its viscera, and examines well the contents, in which she discovers 

 the type of sickness that afflicts the person. This she announces and 

 also, in vague terms, the person who caused the sickness. 



TREATMENT BY HERBALISTS AND LAY PERSONS 



Herbalists as specialists are practically nonexistent among the 

 Argentine Araucanians. "In Chile there are still many of them. Some 

 of our people could again learn from them, but our herbs here are 

 different from those in Chile; therefore the remedies for certain 

 sicknesses are different from ours, in Chile." Medicinal plants, used 

 as household remedies, however, are known to many persons, includ- 

 ing children. School-age boys and girls, who scampered over the 

 countryside to find for me specimens of plants mentioned by their 

 grandmothers as household remedies, usually brought back additional 

 plants which the grandmother had forgotten to mention. The anatomy 

 of the human body is obviously not well known — the heart was indi- 

 cated as being at the waistline ; the stomach, in the abdomen. 



An Argentine doctor in charge of the First Aid Station (La Sala de 

 Primer Auxilio) and the Military Hospital — both in San Martin de 

 los Andes — where free health service is given to all who wish it, said, 

 "On the whole, the Araucanians are a sturdy people. And they know 

 how to use their household remedies effectively." 



The following medicinal plants are used as household remedies. 

 Names here given are in Spanish unless the informant knew only the 

 Araucanian name, in which case the Araucanian name is given. 



I 



