WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 347 



Each lofche was the recognized legitimate occupant of a vast area 

 of land — maybe the owner of it, in relationship to other tribes. Bound- 

 aries of a lofche's area were natural ones, such as rivers or their large 

 tributaries, and foothills or valleys of the Cordillera. The cacique of 

 the lofche, in conference with his iil'men, partitioned a section of the 

 area equitably among his people for grazing, letting the rest of the 

 area grow in grass for future grazings. Each family, then, had recog- 

 nized exclusive rights to its allotted grazing land. The boundary lines 

 of a family's land, also, were usually natural ones, such as a creek, rock 

 formations, or small hills. Occasionally a fence (malal) was erected 

 between allotments. If a man found that his allotted land was not 

 sufficient for his herds, he might obtain an additional grazing area by 

 an agreement with a man who had land to spare. Kolupan explained 

 it thus: "We always had very rich people — these were the iil'men; 

 and very poor people — these were the lifta. A rich man might have 

 4,000-5,000 horses, 500-600 head of cattle, 15,000 sheep. The cacique 

 had told him that he could not have grazing land for so many. But 

 such a man needed more grazing land; so another man let him use 

 some of his, with the understanding that he, the legitimate assignee 

 to the land, would get one-half of all animals born on his land. It 

 sometimes happened, formerly, that a man of the iil'men class fell 

 into the lifta class, because his herds and flocks were depleted by an 

 epidemic or a destructively heavy snowfall or lack of water due to 

 drought. When the army took over, everyone fell into the class of 

 the Hfta. The army took our large land holdings, most of our animals, 

 and drove us farther and farther into narrow valleys of the Cordil- 

 lera." A cacique might feel justified in redistributing the land, but 

 he had no jurisdiction over the animals in his lofche unless a quarrel 

 ensued between owners because of them. 



The cacique also decided the time when his lofche was to move to 

 new grazing grounds. The daughter of the late cacique of Trumpul 

 told of the movements of her lofche at the direction of its cacique: 

 "My great-grandfather, my grandfather, and my father were caciques. 

 When my great-grandfather held the position of cacique, our people 

 lived in Ketchuquina; he died there. My grandfather then became 

 cacique. He had not been cacique long before he moved his people 

 to Vega Mapu; later, he moved them back to Ketchuquina. Then 

 came the great malon (massacre), and he fled to Chile with his lofche. 

 When that was ended, he moved his lofche back to Trumpul (Argen- 

 tina), and what is left of our lofche today lives there." 



One of the important duties of the cacique was to set the time for 

 the celebration of the ijillatun, the tribal religious ceremonial, and 



