WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 367 



to settle. The water that collected was poured off and handfuls of the 

 potatoes squeezed to free them of any remaining water. The mass 

 was then eaten either raw or slightly cooked. 



Nuts from the cones of the araucaria (pi. "^2, j) were a staple food 

 for families who lived where the tree grows. Families from other 

 areas, too, migrated annually to collect them for their own consump- 

 tion. Today families collect them for sale — at the time the present 

 study was being made, several Quilaquina families went to Chinquili- 

 huen to do so. "They pick kilos of them ; we buy them from these 

 people." Large groves of the araucaria are still found in Pulmari 

 between Lake Tromen and the Alagdalena Valley, and in the areas 

 surrounding Lake Alumina, Lake Huechulafquen, and Lake Currhue 

 Grande. Small groves and scattered trees are found at Lake Meliquina 

 and Lake Carmen. The tree bears its first nuts when about 25 years, 

 old, and it takes 2 years for them to ripen. The nuts, white and 

 almondlike and nearly the size of dates, are either roasted or cooked 

 in meat stews. To roast them they are strung on a thread of sinew 

 and hung at a little distance over the fire. In days when they were 

 used as food by all families they were dried in sun and air and stored 

 for future use. 



Wild apples (manzana silvestre) were dried on racks over fire- 

 places and then eaten both cooked and uncooked. This custom pre- 

 vails today. An extra supply is stored. 



Among implements used in preparing and serving food in the early 

 days were ollas, cantaros, metates and mullers, mortars and pestles, 

 plates and bowls, cups, knives, pichanas, spoons, lupe, baskets, and 

 winnowing trays. 



Ollas (challa), large-mouthed pieces of pottery, were sufficiently 

 fired to be used in cooking. They could be placed directly in the flames 

 of the fireplace; not so cantaros. Cantaros (metawe, pi. ^6, i) , large, 

 narrow-mouthed pottery pitchers with one or two handles, were only 

 sufficiently fired to be set in hot ashes or at the edge of the fire. Food 

 could be simmered but not cooked in them. Cantaros were also used 

 for storing food and for carrying and storing water. Ollas were al- 

 ways plain ; cantaros sometimes resembled animals and were decorated, 

 A pig-shaped, blackish-colored cantaro (pi. y6, i) found in a grave 

 in Pulmari, and now in the collection of Parque Nacional de Lanin 

 in San Martin de los Andes, is 8 inches high, 7^ inches at greatest 

 width, and 4 inches in diameter at the opening. A duck-shaped one 

 (pi. 76, i), found in a grave in Huechulafquen, is 7 inches high, 

 y^ inches at greatest width, and 3 inches in diameter at the opening. 



In 1950 workmen building a road found approximately 50 cantaros 



