400 TRADITIONS — DELUGE — CHEM. Feb. 



tract of country, reaching from the Gulf of Ancud nearly to 

 the river Bio-Bio, probably the finest district in all South 

 America, is still kept by the brave Araucanians. 



These Indians are extremely superstitious, but in their rites 

 there are curious customs, perhaps indicative of their origin. 

 About Valdivia, whenever an aboriginal and heathen native 

 dies, he is buried in a small canoe, with a scanty supply of 

 provisions and chicha,* on the bank of a river which flows to 

 the sea. Their idea is that the spirit goes by water to that 

 place, in the direction of the setting sun, whence their remote 

 ancestors came. Febres says, in his work before mentioned, 

 that the island Mocha is the place meant : but if we reflect 

 that Mocha is very small, only twenty miles from the main- 

 land, and that when first discovered, early in the sixteenth 

 century, it was inhabited by Indians who often crossed over 

 to the continent, I think we must look much farther west for 

 the place of departed souls to which these people refer. 



The aborigines who live near volcanoes offer propitiatory 

 sacrifices to the evil spirit, Pillan, who is said to cause earth- 

 quakes and eruptions. They sacrifice buUs and rams to him, 

 besides offering fruit, vegetables, and chicha. On a mountain 

 called Theghin, or Theg-theghin, (wliich means to crackle or 

 sparkle like fire), these people say that their early progenitors 

 escaped from the Deluge. There is a word in common use among 

 them, meaning ' the great ancestor,' or ' our great ancestors, 

 or ' the renowned,' wliich is hardly to be distinguished from 

 Shem. Febres spells it ' Them,"' but, as the th is frequently pro- 

 nounced, .it would sound like chem.-f- Can this be handed 

 down from their ancestor of the Ark .'*]: 



Another word that attracted my notice particularly, was 

 ' minga.' I have a note by me (unfortunately without the 

 proper reference) remarking the resemblance of minga, not 



• Fermented liquor made from maize, apples, or other substances. 



t Molina, Hist. Civil de Chile. Vol. ii. p. 333. Falkner says that the 

 Vuta Huilliche substitute t for ch, p. 99. 



J I am informed by Doctor Andrew Smith, that the word Ham is 

 still common among the nations of southern Africa, as a distinguishing 

 appellation, 



