65 



intentional homicide, adultery, the robbery of 

 any valuable article, and witchcraft. Never- 

 theless, those found guilty of homicide can 

 screen themselves from punishment by a compo- 

 sition with the relations of the murdered. Hus- 

 bands and fathers are not subject to any punish- 

 ment for killing their wives or childre'p-^tas they 

 are declared, by their laws, to be the natural 

 masters of their lives. Those accused of sor- 

 cery, a crime only known in countries involved 

 in ignorance, are first tortured by fire, in order 

 to make them discover their accomplices, and 

 then stabbed with daggers. 



Other crimes of less importance are punished 

 by retaliation, which is much in use among 

 them, under the name of thaulonco. Justice is 

 administered in a tumultuous and irregular 

 manner, and without any of those preliminary 

 formalities, for the most part useless, that are 

 observed among civilized nations. The criminal 

 who is convicted of a capital offence, is imme- 

 diately put to death, according to the military 

 custom, without first being suffered to rot in 

 prison, a mode of confinement unknown to the 

 Araucanians. It was, however, a little befoire 

 my leaving Chili, introduced into Tucapel, the 

 seat of the government of Lauquen-mapu, by 

 Cathicura. the Toqui of that district; but, I 

 know not the success of this experiment, which 

 was at first very ill received by bis subjects. 



YOL. II. F 



