WHOLE VOL. 



ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 



381 



Decorations, if any, were painted or incised designs of lines and 

 dots. The curator of Museo Nahuel Huapi believed them due to 

 Quechua influence. No informant had painted designs on pottery, 

 nor did any informant remember seeing anyone else do so. None 

 attached any meaning to the designs. Informants had heard old per- 

 sons say, however, that painting was done before pottery was fired. 

 Paint was made by cooking earth with specific plants and then working 

 the mash thoroughly with the hands. Dark blue was obtained by cook- 

 ing earth with stems of maqui or michai ; guanaco color, by cooking 

 earth with bark of maiten. Black earth was used for black, "but we 

 got it from the south ; it is not found here." 



Fig. 



10.— Pottery designs. (Sketches made from potsherds the writer picked up 

 at a grave disturbed by workmen digging a ditch near Collun Co.) 



Potsherds of a dark color thrown out of a grave by workmen while 

 digging a ditch near Collun Co in 1951 were decorated either with 

 obliquely incised line designs, incised ridges, or elevated bands (fig. 

 10). One potsherd, painted white, is decorated with both horizontal 

 and oblique brown lines. 



SUMMARY 



It is not clear whether the Araucanians in Argentina are indigenous 

 or whether they migrated there from what is now Chile. In pre- 

 Spanish days the Argentine Araucanians were hunters; in post- 

 Spanish days they raised sheep, cattle, and horses, and were, to a small 

 degree, interested in horticulture and agriculture. Today, having been 

 dispossessed of their lands, they lease land for cultivation and grazing 

 purposes. The Argentine Araucanians, along with the Chilean Arau- 

 canians, form the Araucanian linguistic family. 



