WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANL\X CHILD LIFZ — HnC-lS 353 



a piece of land within that area, "-'ly huiband, vrho was the cadque," 

 explained an 8oyear-old Quilaquina woman, "was given five leguas 

 of land for his people, bordering on this lake. Lake Lacar [probably 

 15 miles of lake front] (pi. 64, 7, ^). He let his people settle on it. 

 We thought that land belonged to us. Then the tourists began to 

 settle on it and we lost all the land bordering on the lake. Again we 

 had to move. Our family moved up here, onto the mountainside; 

 down there on the shore of the lake you cam still see the orchard of 

 our old place. I have fears, sometimes now, that the Government will 

 also take the land on whidi we now live." The following quotation 

 from an informant is typical of the feeling of insecurity of many 

 persons regarding land holding: '*I lived in one place for 39 years 

 but had to leave it when they took our land. Then I leased land from 

 the Government in another locality. Xot long after that the Govern- 

 ment laid out national parks in that area. They wanted me to move 

 off my place, but I refused to do so. In consequence they turned my 

 house over and burned it. We lived under a tree after that. Before 

 long they told me to take my sheep and cattle away, for they were 

 eating the small trees needed to beautify the national parks. Since I 

 had no place to put my animals, I let than run loose. I took my \%ife 

 and children, and they took scane hois, and we went where other 

 families like ours had already gone. It was discouraging, too, to leave 

 my maturing wheat and oats. I found work, then, in various places, 

 as a hired man, at odd jobs ; I worked at any job that I could get. The 

 town officials of San Martin de los Andes later gave me this s-mall 

 piece of land on which we now live; it is very stoney and little wiU 

 grow on it. But for the time being at least we can call it our place. 

 I still work at odd jobs." 



Cattle, at the present time, are grazed on land leased from th= Argen- 

 tine Government, usually under a communal lease administered by the 

 cacique. Manuel Panefulu, cacique of MaUeo (pL 77, i), had leased 

 such land for the 45 families imder his jurisdictioiL Each family 

 lived on a portion of the land and had some under cultivation. The 

 cacique pointed out his wheat field wiA just pride. Animals of ail 

 families were grazed on common pasturelands. Every owner, toward 

 evening, came to the pasture, collected his animals, drove them home, 

 and placed them in corrals for the night, to be again taken to the 

 pasture in the morning. The total area leased by the Malleo people 

 \\-as approximately 13,500 acres. 



After the grain begins to sprout, families take their cattle and 

 sheep to the higher valleys of the Andes for summer grazing, which 

 is also a communal affair. The danger to unfenced wheat ields is 



