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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Publishers' Photo Service 



INTERIOR OF THE NATIONAL ART MUSEUM : SANTIAGO 



The Palacio de Bellas Artes contains, besides a museum, a school of fine arts. On the 

 ground floor may be seen the works of many Chilean sculptors, while the galleries surrounding 

 the main salon contain paintings by the nation's most famous artists as well as those of the 

 old masters. 



The cross, featured in Mapuche orna- 

 ments, erected over graves, and painted 

 on the faces of warriors during festivals, 

 is not, curiously enough, the Christian 

 cross introduced by the Spaniards. It is 

 the eight-pointed Maltese cross and ante- 

 dates the European invasion. 



COSTUMES AND CUSTOMS OF THE 

 MAPUCHE 



Incan influence can also be noted in 

 certain Mapuche words. A species of 

 seaweed, for instance, here much prized 

 as food, is known as cuchayuyu. To the 

 Incas it was cocha yuyu, "garden truck 



of the sea." I compiled quite a list of 

 these Incan-Mapuche words. 



The women cling to the old type of 

 costume — the black or deep indigo-blue 

 belted blanket gown, pinned over the 

 shoulders. They wear their abundant 

 black hair in two long queues, wrapping 

 a cloth about the head, turban-fashion. 

 Their enormous silver ear-pendants and 

 massive necklaces give them a bizarre ap- 

 pearance. 



The barbarous fashion of plucking the 

 eyebrows, popular of late in the United 

 States, has long been practiced by Ma- 

 puche belles. 



