340 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



(stamping on the ground), and the huillafsn kawell (galloping horse). 

 The dancers of the choike today wear rhea feathers on their heads 

 and bells across their chests, a custom, the informant believed, bor- 

 rowed from the Tehuelche, since old persons say that formerly the 

 Araucanians did not wear these. Kolupan was of the same opinion, 

 and added, "Today, our people also wear them when tourists wish to 

 photograph them." In demonstrating the choike, the Collon Cura 

 informant folded a poncho cornerwise, swung it across his back with 

 folded edge at neckline, held one of each of the opposite corners in 

 one hand, and stretched his arms out full length. Holding the poncho 

 taut in line with his arms, he moved his arms like a bird does its 

 wings, remarking that they represented wings. Dancing is done to 

 the rhythm of the kultruq. To demonstrate the dance he shook his 

 head from side to side as does the rhea (choike) when walking, and 

 touched the floor with the toes of one foot and then the heel. He did 

 this alternately with each foot as he moved forward. Each dancer 

 did the same, one dancer following close behind the other. All move- 

 ments coincided with a beat of the kultrui]. 



Only old men smoked at the r|illatun. Clay pipes (raq kitra) made 

 by the women were used. Often they were ornamented with silver. 

 Other essential pottery, also made by the women — and still considered 

 essential today — are jugs (metawe), ollas (challa), whistles (pifalka), 

 plates (ral'i), and cups (yiwe). The tall impressive canelo of Chile, 

 which grows only to shrub height in Argentina, is not considered 

 sacred by Argentine Araucanians, and is not used in the qillatun. 



At the closing of the ijillatun the men on horseback face the people 

 and form a circle around them. The officiating cacique then delivers 

 a long address which is answered by a captain of a visiting cacique. 

 This done, the officiating cacique orders the burial of a pottery vessel 

 which contains food reserved from the ceremonial, generally wheat, 

 corn, and several tortillas baked in ashes. Anyone wishing to add to 

 the contents may do so. Many do add wheat or corn until the vessel 

 is filled. The vessel is about a foot high and a foot in diameter, 

 and must have two opposing handles close to its opening. The 

 contents is covered with leaves of maqui and the vessel buried 

 approximately 2 feet below the surface of the earth. A bush of 

 arrayan is planted over the burial place to serve as a marker. "This 

 will be done in Quilaquina in April," noted Kolupan, "if the cacique 

 calls the people together for a qillatun, as he is supposed to do. A 

 vessel was buried in Quilaquina at the end of the last qillatun, but 

 someone plowed the land of the ijillatun and no one now knows where 

 it is buried. That tells you how our old ways are disappearing ; they 



