WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 371 



around the olla (or iron kettle, today) in which the food had been 

 cooked, or the large wooden dish from which each served himself. 

 Many families squat in similar manner today ; an occasional one eats 

 seated at a table. 



Women cooked the meals. Today, as formerly, an old woman when 

 cooking follows the tradition of wearing her shawl. No reason for 

 this was known. 



Drinking water was taken from an uncontaminated spring, either at 

 its source or from a creek formed by it and known to be uncon- 

 taminated. (Pis, 62, I ; 72, I.) Homes were located only where there 

 was an uncontaminated source of water. 



Beverages in the early days consisted of mudai and of refreshing 

 decoctions made from leaves and blossoms of paico and bark of maqui. 

 Mudai was made by fermenting quinoa and neneo, cultivated small 

 grain and corn, or araucaria nuts. These were either chewed by older 

 women or crushed on a metate and then allowed to stand until fer- 

 mented. Mudai is rarely drunk as a beverage today ; if it is, it is made 

 from cooked wheat. 



Chicha (pulku), an alcoholic drink, was made of berries of 

 mulwin (unidentified), parrilla, and michai, and of wild apples. A 

 70-year-old man had made chicha from apples in the following way, 

 a way used in making chicha from berries also : Apples were picked, 

 placed in a 5- to 6-yard-long dugout, and immediately mashed by 

 hitting them with poles. The dugout was made of hardwood, generally 

 roble. The mashed apples were poured into calfskin containers in 

 which holes had been previously poked, and the containers hung over 

 the dugout. Each container was then pressed between two poles to 

 force the flow of juice, which was retained in unperforated calfskin 

 containers until it became chicha. 



I observed a 59-year-old woman making chicha from berries of 

 parrilla and michai. *T can pick these berries everywhere in the valleys 

 of these mountains; I have no way of getting wild apples." She 

 mashed bowlfuls of the berries by hand and poured them into an un- 

 perforated hide container that she had made by fastening the ends 

 of the hide to two poles a short distance apart. As soon as the juice 

 had fermented to suit her taste, she pressed a finely woven kiilko 

 (basket) into the mash and let the juice collect in it. Since Argentine 

 law today requires a permit for the making of chicha, little of it is 

 made by Araucanians ; wine has replaced chicha. 



A favorite beverage today is yerba mate, a non-Araucanian tea made 

 of imported leaves of Ilex paraguariensis. It is taken by adults and 



