433 



ARAUCANA. 



ARAUCANA. 



434 



the Araucanians. The country consists of plains, mountains, and 

 valleys between the offshoots of the Andes. The principal products 

 of the country are its forest timber, some gold-dust, cattle, and horses. 

 The Araucanians manufacture some woollen stuffs for their own use. 

 The Chilian province of Valdivia lies to the south of Araucana, of 

 which ita territory once formed part. On Arauco Bay the Chilians 

 have built a fortress called Fort Arauco. The Biobio, the Canten, and 

 the Callacalla or Valdivia are the chief rivers. 



The Araucanians are said to take their name from the province of 

 Arauco, and pride themselves in being called Axica, which in their 

 language means free. Since the declaration of Chilian independence 

 in 1818 the Araucanians have had more intercourse with their neigh- 

 bours, and Christianity has made some further advances among them. 

 Almost every Chileuo family of good substance brings up an 

 Araucanian girl as a servant or humble dependant ; and many 

 Araucanian youths are enrolled in the Chilian army or militia. This 

 greater intercourse with the Chilians has probably tended to soften 

 some features in the following notice, which describes the institutions 

 of this people in the last century. 



The government of the Araucanians is aristocratical, and is composed 

 of three orders : the Toquis, the Apo-ulmenes, and the Ulmenea. The 

 Toquis are four independent chiefs, presiding over the four tetrarchies. 

 Though independent of one another, they form a federal union for 

 the public welfare. The Apo-ulmenes have the command of the 

 provinces under their respective toquis, and the Ulmenes preside over 

 the districts. All these dignities are hereditary in the male line, in 

 the order of primogeniture. The toquia possess but a shadow of 

 sovereignty ; the real power resides in the Vutacoyag, or Aucacoyag, 

 the great council, or council of the Araucanians. Thia diet is 

 composed of the Toquis, the Apo-ulmenes and Ulmenes, and is held 

 IB MBe plain or valley, whenever any affair of importance is to be 

 decided upon. 



Their Admapu, or code of laws, consists simply of traditionary 

 customs. The election of the principal officers in time of war and the 

 convocation of the diet are vested in the toquis. No toqui can ever 

 rule over more than one tetrarchy. The subjects are not bound to render 

 their chief any sort of personal service except in time of war. When 

 the male line of the chief becomes extinct, the people choose another 

 ruler out of the family that is most agreeable to them. 



The crimes which are visited with the greatest severity of the law 

 are treason, murder, adultery, theft, and witchcraft ; the murderer 

 may escape punishment by compounding with the offended family. 

 Fathers possess the power of life and death over their children. The 

 sorcerer is first tortured by fire in order to compel him to declare hia 

 accomplices, and then stabbed. Less crimes are punished by the law 

 of retaliation. Any one found guilty of a capital offence ia (or used 

 to be) immediately put to death. 



When the council has decided upon war, they choose a commander 

 from among the four toquis ; or if none of these ia competent an 

 ulmen, or even any other inferior officer, is chosen. The general 

 having accepted the office, assumes the title of toqui, and takes the 

 axe (the badge of a toqui), which all the other toquia are obliged to 

 lay down during the time of his dictatorship. This ceases with the 

 war. The general then appoints a vice-toqui and the officers of his 

 staff, the latter nominating their subaltern officers. The vice-toqui is 

 generally taken from the tribe of the Puelches. A messenger is then sent 

 to announce the war to the friendly tribes, and even to the Indians 

 who live among the Spaniards. His credentials consist in a small 

 bundle of arrows tied with a red thread; if the war has already 

 begun, they put in the centre the finger of a dead enemy. This 

 expedition is called the Pulquitun, or running the arrow, and is done 

 with such secrecy, particularly in the possessions of the Spaniards, 

 that it has rarely been discovered. The dictator then requires from 

 each of the toquis his allotted contingent of men, and the levy is 

 made without any difficulty, as no Araucanian ever refuses to come 

 forward in defence of his country's liberty. The army consists 

 generally of 5000 or 6000 men, cavalry, and infantry, besides a large 

 body of reserve. The infantry is formed into regiments, each con- 

 sisting of 1000 men, divided into ten companies; every regiment has 

 a flag with a star embroidered upon it, which is the arms of the 

 nation. The cavalry is divided in the same way, but the number of 

 horsemen is not always the same. The soldiers wear no uniform, but 

 they put on, under their usual dress, a cuirass made of leather 

 hardened by means of a certain varnish. Their helmets and shields 

 are alao constructed of the same material. The cavalry are armed 

 with lances and swords, and the infantry with guns, pikes, and clubs 

 furnished with iron. Formerly they used the sling and the bow. 

 The infantry is usually all mounted on horseback until they discover 

 the enemy, when they immediately dismount and form themselves into 

 companiea. Each soldier carries with him his own provisions, 

 consisting of some roasted meal or flour in a bag. 



After a battle, every soldier is the rightful master of the prize which 

 he himself has made, but when the booty has been taken in common, 

 it is divided equally among them all, the toqui himself receiving no 

 greater share than the private soldier. A law prescribes, that after 

 battle one of the prisoners must be sacrificed to the manes of the 

 heroes who have fallen. This ceremony is called the Pruloncon, or 

 dance of the dead ; it ia rarely performed. Conferences for making 



OEOO DIV. vol. t. 



peace with their enemies are opened with many tedious compliments, 

 and conducted with long harangues, in which the evils of war and 

 the advantages of peace are dilated upon. The treaty is ratified by 

 the sacrifice of several llamas, and great feasting follows. 



The heathen Araucanians acknowledge a Supreme Being, whom 

 they call Pillan, a word which means the essential soul or spirit. He 

 is the great toqui of the universe, and has inferior deities under him. 

 They also believe in a malignant being, whom they call Guecubu, and 

 to whom they ascribe every misfortune that happens to them. The 

 agency of the Guecubu is counteracted or checked by good male and 

 female spirits under the direction of one of the inferior deities called 

 Meulen ; one of these female genii is believed to bo constantly attendant 

 on every Araucaniau. The Supreme Being is believed to require no 

 sort of worship ; accordingly, they have neither temples, idols, nor 

 priests, and offer no sacrifices except on some solemn occasion, when 

 they offer a llama, and bum tobacco to their divinities. They are 

 very superstitious ; an Araucauian, who faces a cannon with intrepid 

 valour, is terrified at the sight of an owl. 



They believe that man is formed of two substances, the body and 

 the soul, and that the latter is incorporeal and immortal. After the 

 death of the body, the sotil is taken by -a. spirit to a place called 

 Guelcheman, or ' the abode of men on the other side of the mountains," 

 which place according to some is divided into two regions, one of 

 bliss for the good, and another of misery for the wicked ; but others 

 pretend that they will all be there eternally happy, and that their 

 actions during the life of the body have no influence on their future 

 state. 



Funeral ceremonies are performed with much lamentation and 

 weeping, eating and drinking, and with many superstitious observances. 

 The burial-ground ia generally on some high hill or in a wood. The 

 dead body is placed in the grave, surrounded by his arms if a man, 

 and by female implements if a woman, together with several dishes 

 full of victuals, and some vessels full of chicha, a fermented liquor 

 made of maize, which is the common beverage in South America. 

 Sometimes a horse is killed, and buried with the body. It is then 

 covered with earth, and several stones piled up in the form of a 

 pyramid. A great quantity of chicha ia then poured upon it as a 

 funeral libation, and the company returns home. 



In the new state of existence, the soul being free from the incurn- 

 brance of the body, pursues with greater facility and perfection all the 

 occupations that it had in the body. Wives return to the bosom of 

 their husbands, and children rejoin their parents, but no new children 

 are born. 



They also preserve the tradition of a universal deluge from which a 

 few persons were saved on the top of a mountain having three points, 

 called 'Thegtheg' or 'Thundering Mountain," which floated upon the 

 waters. As this deluge was preceded by an earthquake and a volcanic 

 eruption, whenever these phenomena take place the inhabitants betake 

 themselves to one of those mountains in the Andes which resembles 

 the Thegtheg, carrying with them an abundant supply of provisions, 

 and several wooden plates to protect their heads against the excessive 

 heat of the sun in case the mountain should be raised too near to that 

 body. 



The Araucanians divide their years into seasons, montha, and days. 

 Their year is solar, and begins on the 22nd of December or immediately 

 after the summer solstice, and is divided into twelve months of thirty 

 days each, with five days added probably to the last month. They 

 divide the natural day into two equal parts, and these again into 

 twelve parts, six for the day and six for the night. They measure 

 their hours by the altitude of the sun in the day, and by the stars at 

 night, without the aid of any instruments. In civil affairs they reckon 

 their time by days, mornings, or nights. They divide the stars ir.to 

 Pal, or constellations, and distinguish them by the number of stars in 

 each : thus, the pleiades they call ' caju-piil," or * constellation of six." 

 They also distinguish them from the planets, which they call ' gau," 

 from the verb ' gaun," to wash, supposing that when they set they 

 sink into the sea. Eclipses are considered as simple natural pheno- 

 mena, the cause of which they do not know. Comets are considered 

 by them as terrestrial exhalations which become ignited in the 

 atmosphere, but they are not terrified by their appearance. 



They cultivate oratory, poetry, and medicine ; and of these oratory 

 is held in highest esteem. The eldest son of au uhnen who is not a 

 proficient in this art ia excluded from the succession : for this reason 

 they take their children to their national assemblies, and accustom 

 them at a very early period to speak in public. Their poeta are called 

 ' gempin," or ' lords of speech." Their poems, which are transmitted 

 from father to son, generally have reference to the exploits of their 

 heroes, and the measure most generally adopted in their compositions 

 is that of eight or eleven syllables. They are so careful to preserve 

 their language in all its purity that when a foreigner settles among 

 them he is obliged to change his name for an Araucanian one ; even 

 the missionaries have been compelled to do so, and to submit to be 

 interrupted in their sermons by their auditory at every fault they 

 make. 



The language,. though not written by the Araucanians, is very 

 copious. Its radical words, which are generally monosyllables or dis- 

 syllables, amount to about 2000, and are susceptible of an indefinite 

 number of combinations. The language is sweet and harmonious; 



2 F 



