WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 349 



"My husband, a cacique, never interfered when one of his people was 

 apprehended by the Argentine soldiers. He used to tell his people to 

 conduct themselves according to the order of things and they would 

 not be apprehended." No cacique was subservient to another, but when 

 grave danger threatened the Araucanians as a people, the caciques 

 rallied their men under the strongest cacique. Shaihueque was such 

 a cacique. 



Formerly, upon the death of a cacique his eldest capable son became 

 cacique — usually a son of his first wife. If a cacique had no sons, a 

 man of ability was chosen by the men of the lofche. No woman, 

 formerly, occupied the position of cacique ; today she does so in El 

 Salitral. An informant wishing to emphasize the importance of either 

 being an heir to the position of cacique or being properly elected to 

 the position told the following: "My father was the cacique of the 

 Curuhuincas. His eldest son, one of my brothers by my father's first 

 wife, was not fit to succeed him : he was mentally not capable of doing 

 the cacique's work. Hence, my brother Abel took over — he had at- 

 tended the school of the Whites in Valdivia and thought himself fit to 

 be a cacique. He did this without being elected to the office by our 

 men; therefore, he was not really our cacique. He was, however, 

 recognized as representing our lofche wherever my father had done 

 so." Names of former caciques were Painiival, Kalfiikura, Catriol, 

 Cheoeque, Paillamil, and Canuilef. 



Two emblems of a cacique's authority were mentioned : one, by 

 non-Araucanians, a sickle-shaped stone, generally 9 inches in length 

 (pi. 74, 5) ; the other, by Araucanians, a rectangular stone, generally 

 2 by 2^ inches (cf. fig. 4, a). Both were spoken of as toki kura (toki, 

 ax; kura, stone). All Araucanian informants agreed that the em- 

 blem of the cacique's authority was the rectangular stone; whether 

 the sickle-shaped stone was one also is not clear, since no Araucanian 

 recognized it as such. But neither was any Araucanian able to explain 

 why the rectangularly shaped stone was called ax (toki), since it in 

 no way resembles an ax, which the sickle-shaped stone did. Non- 

 Araucanians had been told by old Araucanians, long since deceased, 

 that the sickle-shaped stone was the emblem of authority; that the 

 cacique held it in his hand when he gave an order to his people or 

 addressed them on important matters. No Araucanian informant had 

 heard of this. "My father was a cacique," said a woman in her sixties ; 

 "I know he had no such hammerlike toki ; his toki was a stone so big 

 [2 by 2^ inches]. He had this hanging from his neck; he never held 

 anything in his hand when he talked to his people." Kolupan ex- 

 amined the toki shown in plate 74, 5, seemed puzzled, and remarked, 



