356 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



The Government will not allow trees to be cut for fence making, and 

 newly fallen trees are needed for firewood. Persons who need fences 

 must, therefore, buy slats at lumber mills in the area — something few 

 Araucanians can afford. 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



In post-Columbian and pre-Argentine days each family owned a 

 herd of domesticated horses to which tamed wild ones were added 

 occasionally. Tamed wild cattle were also added to domesticated 

 herds. Other domesticated animals were sheep, pigs, dogs, cats, and 

 chickens, and, in recent years, turkeys and geese. Today an occasional 

 family has a few goats. 



Animals were not branded. "Every owner knew his own, and every- 

 one else knew to whom the animals belonged. The animals, too, knew 

 where they belonged for they always came home no matter how far 

 away they strayed. They do that today." The interpreter, born and 

 reared in Patagonia, knew this to be true. 



Oxen are given names when being trained to haul. Names of pairs 

 owned by informants were Valiente (valiant) and Parece (similar) ; 

 Navegando (navigating) and Marenero (sailor) ; Coronel (colonel) 

 and Cuidado (solicitude) ; Principio (beginning) and Recuerdo 

 (remembrance). 



A pre-Argentine breed of chicken (pio) known to non-Araucanians 

 as the "Araucanian chicken" was seen about many homes. Three 

 characteristics distinguish them : body feathers are of several colors ; 

 the head is tufted with feathers; and the shells of their eggs are 

 pastel shades of blue, greenish blue, green, and yellowish pink. "That 

 speckled gray-white hen over there with the tuft on her head lays 

 bluish eggs; that one with the mixture of yellow, black, and red 

 feathers lays yellowish-pink eggs." Chickens are fattened on the 

 berries of michai. "Whenever I want to fatten one, I tell her [small 

 daughter] to take it to where the berries of michai hang low. Chickens 

 certainly know how to feed on those berries." 



TRADE, EXCHANGE, CASH INCOME 



The oldest informants recalled the days when the trade of the Arau- 

 canians extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Horses were traded 

 with Pampa Indians of the Argentine plains and with Whites as far 

 as Buenos Aires ; cattle were traded with Whites as far as Valdivia in 

 Chile ; none remembered the days of trade with peoples to the north, 

 the Guarani, Quechua, and Aymara. Non-Araucanian informants, 



