A LONGITUDINAL JOURNEY THROUGH CHILE 



253 



© Publishers' Photo Service 



A CORNER OE THE MARKET: SANTIAGO 



Chilean melons are unrivaled. Last season, fruit from Chile was marketed in New York, some 

 of the melons, weighing seventeen pounds, selling for $6 each. 



The men have forsaken native dress 

 save back in the mountains, where a few 

 still cling to the chirapa, or bloomers, 

 evolved from a blanket wrapped round 

 the legs and tucked through the belt, the 

 same type of trousers formerly worn by 

 the Argentine gaucho. 



Mapuche customs, slowly dying out, 

 are interesting. There is the hair-pulling 

 contest among the boys. Standing face 

 to face, each combatant grasps the long 

 locks of his opponent and the game is on. 

 The feat is to destroy your opponent's 



balance and bring him to the ground. 

 Once down, there is no pommeling. The 

 hold is loosened and the boys stand up 

 and begin again. Chucca, the national 

 Mapuche ball-game, played with clubs, 

 is not unlike hockey. 



Certain names among Christianized 

 Mapuches and Chileans puzzle the trav- 

 eler until he learns that, regardless of 

 sex, a child is often named after the 

 saint upon whose day it happens to be 

 born. Thus a man may be called "Maria"' 

 and a woman "Pabla." 



