117 



The wives have the greatest respect for their 

 husbands, and g 'nerally give him the title of 

 hiitGy or great. Besides female occupations,, 

 they are obliged to eiiip!o}' themselves in many 

 that, in civilized countries, are considered as the 

 peculiar province of the men, according to 

 the established maxim of all barbarous nations, 

 that the weaker sex are born to labour, and the 

 stronger to make war and to command. Each 

 of them is obliged to present to her husband 

 daily a dish prepared by herself in her separate 

 kitchen or fire-place ; for this reason the houses 

 of the Araucauians have as many fires as there 

 are women inhabiting them ; whence, in inquir- 

 ing of any one how many wives he has, they 

 make use of the following phrase of being the 

 most polite, muri onthalgewii, how many fires 

 do you keep. Each wife is also obliged to 

 furnish her husband yearly, besides his necessary 

 clothing, with one of those cloaks already de- 

 scribed, called ponchoSy which form one of the 

 principal branches of the Araucanian commerce. 



The greatest attention is paid by the women 

 to the cleanliness of their houses, which they 

 sweep, as well' as their courts, several times in 

 the course of a day ; and whenever they make 

 use of any utensil they immediately wash it, for 

 which purpose their houses are supplied with an 

 abundance of running water. The saine at- 

 tention to cleanlijiess is paid to their persons; 



i3 



