366 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



barley (kawella) ; cultivated grains were wheat (kachilla) and corn 

 (tapalwa). In later years oats (huinca kawella) were added to these. 



Whole grain and grain ground to flour with a muUer on a metate 

 were used in preparing tortillas, catuto, milke, koiiako, mote, iwifi 

 afiin, and kofeii. European breads made of flour were added to these 

 in recent years. Tortillas were made by mixing flour with water and 

 salt, flattening pieces of the dough between the palms of the hands 

 and baking them in hot ashes. Catuto was whole cooked grain, gen- 

 erally wheat, well crushed with a muller on a metate and formed into 

 a loaf. Pieces were either eaten directly from the loaf or fried in 

 grease. 



To make milke, grain and hot sand were continuously stirred by 

 means of two sticks in a 4-cornered piece of pottery, known as lupe, 

 made for the purpose. As the hulls of the grain were released, they 

 were pushed over the edge of the lupe. When the grain was suffi- 

 ciently roasted, the lupe was emptied into a kiilko, a sievelike basket, 

 which was shaken to cause the sand to fall out. The grain cleared of 

 sand was winnowed on a ulepal (winnowing tray), ground to flour 

 on a metate, and then cooked. 



Mote was wheat cooked in water with ashes of chakai. Ashes were 

 washed off the cooked wheat in running water, and the wheat eaten 

 warm or cold. Iwiii afiin was flour mixed with salt and water and 

 fried in deep fat. Kofen was toasted wheat kernels. Koiiako was not 

 identified. Occasionally today each of the above dishes is prepared. 



In addition to wild grains, wild plants used as food were roots and 

 leaves of napur (unidentified), leaves of watercress (berro), roots 

 and tops of apio or chirivia, and roots of achicoria. "Achicoria is best 

 just as the plant pushes through the sand." 



Potatoes were cultivated even in the early days. The custom of 

 fermenting them (funa poiiii) by depositing them in a hole drained 

 by running water, it appears, was learned from Chilean Araucanians 

 in recent years. A man in his early fifties and a woman in her eighties 

 had not seen potatoes prepared in this way; several informants, on 

 the other hand, knew the location of holes used for the purpose. 



Fermented potatoes were peeled and grated, and salt and grease 

 were well worked into them by hand. They were eaten either raw 

 or cooked. If the mixture was to be cooked, small portions were flat- 

 tened between the hands and baked in hot ashes like tortillas, or rolled 

 between the hands to form "one long sausage" and wound around a 

 pole. The pole was then either laid horizontally across the fireplace 

 or planted in a leaning position at the edge of it. 



Un fermented raw potatoes (kofke poiiii) were grated and allowed 



