388 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



conversation during visiting is about current topics of interest, but 

 legends and stories are also told. Children are always listeners-in ; 

 sometimes legends are told for their benefit. During visits older men 

 usually smoked a mixture of plant substances in pottery pipes. Today 

 a cigarette is usually passed from person to person. 



Formalized conversation was carried on when a woman's immediate 

 family paid its first visit to her after her marriage ; at the time of her 

 marriage she moved to her husband's toldo. 



Musical instruments were a drum, a wind instrument, two types of 

 whistles, a tune pipe, rattles, and an instrument made of the lower 

 jaw of a horse. There were no traditional recreational dances ; today, 

 modern dances of the Argentines are participated in. 



A game of chance was played by men, and by boys among them- 

 selves. A competitive game, known as chueca, is still played by op- 

 posing teams from different areas. 



Small children played with sticks, stones, or insects, and when a 

 little older, with tops and other things that they themselves could 

 make or find about the place. Dolls were not part of a girl's play life. 

 Domesticated animals were not pets, but a young orphaned guanaco 

 or rhea was raised and became one. Today, an occasional child has a 

 kitten or cat, a dog, or a chicken as a pet. 



All children learned to swim ; today, mostly boys do so. Formerly, 

 all children rode horseback, and many do today. 



Health. — Certain measures taken when children were young, it was 

 believed, would insure good health and result in long life. If ill health 

 occurred in either children or adults it was ascribed to sorcery. It was 

 believed that sorcerers had either put poison into one's food or had 

 inflicted harm in a mysterious way from a distance. Antidotes known 

 to others or to the sorcerer had to be applied in the early stages of 

 sickness if a cure was to be effected. Often it was jealousy that 

 prompted use of sorcery to cause sickness. Mental ill health was ex- 

 ceedingly rare. If it occurred, it, too, was blamed on sorcery. The 

 inflicting sorcerer knew the antidote. 



The sick were treated by herbalists who were specialists, and also 

 by machi who were either both herbalists and sorcerers or only sor- 

 cerers. Machi and herbalists were of both sexes. The machi exercised 

 their curative powers during a performance known as machitun. 



Herbalists, as specialists, are practically nonexistent today ; but 

 plants and other things used as household remedies are known to 

 many, even to children. The human anatomy is not well known. 



Marriage. — Formerly, a cacique had three or more wives ; com- 

 moners not infrequently had two. Simultaneous wives were seldom 



