shaped somewhat like a long sword, is called the macana, and has often been resorted to as a weapon in time of war. The same rude mode of weaving is common, though not universal, in South America. The manner of weaving ponchos I shall describe when treating of the town of Arauco, for what I saw here did not deserve attention.
Besides the laborious occupation of spinning and weaving, and the usual household labour, each wife (for polygamy is allowed, every man marrying as many wives as he choose, or rather, as many as he can maintain) has to present to her husband daily a dish of her own cooking, and annually a poncho of her own spinning and weaving, besides flannel for shirts and drawers. Thus an indian's house generally contains as many fire places and looms as he has wives, and Abbé Molina says, that instead of asking a man how many wives he has, it is more polite to ask him how many fires he keeps.
The females are cleanly in their houses and persons; dirt is never seen on their clothes, and they frequently bathe, or wash themselves three or four times a day. The men also pay great attention to the cleanliness of their persons. The females attend to the cultivation of their gardens, in which the men work but little, considering themselves absolute masters—the lords of the creation, born only to command, and the women, being the weaker, to obey: sentiments which polygamy supports; plurality of wives tending to destroy those tender feelings of attachment which we find in countries where the law allows only one wife. The principal part of the labour of their farms is performed by the women, who often plough, sow, reap and carry to the thrashing floor the wheat or barley, which, when trodden out by horses, is thrown into the air, that the wind may blow away the chaff. I saw no other grain at Tucapel or its vicinity but wheat and barley, in small patches; but I was told that they produced a hundred fold.
The care of the offspring is entirely committed to the women. A mother immediately on her delivery takes her child, and going down to the nearest stream of water, washes herself and it, and returns to the usual labours of her station. The children are never swaddled, nor their bodies confined by any tight clothing; they are wrapped in a piece of flannel, laid on a sheep skin, and put into a basket suspended from the roof, which occasionally receives a push from any one passing, and continues swinging for some minutes. They are allowed to crawl about nearly naked until they can walk; and afterwards, to the age of ten or twelve years, the boys wear a small poncho, and the girls a piece of flannel, wrapped round their waist, reaching down to the knees. The mother, after that age, abandons the boys to the care of the father, on whom they attend and wait as servants; and the daughters are instructed in the several works which it will ere long become their duty to fulfil. To the loose clothing which the children wear from their infancy may doubtless be attributed the total absence of deformity among the indians. Perhaps some travellers might suggest, that confinement in any shape would be considered disgraceful to the haughty Araucanians, who are pleased to call themselves, "the never vanquished, always victors."
The house to which I was conveyed by the indians was about five leagues from the coast, situated in a ravine, towards the farther extremity of which the range of hills on each side appeared to unite. A stream of excellent water ran at the bottom of the small valley, winding its way to the sea, and fordable at this time of the year, but visibly much deeper at other times, from the marks of the surface water on the banks and on several large pieces of rock lying in the stream.
The low part of the ravine (at first more than three miles wide, and gradually closing as we rode up towards the house) was cultivated in small patches; and among the brushwood were to be seen clusters of apple, pear and peach trees, some of them so laden with fruit that their branches were bent to the ground. The sides of the mountains displayed in gorgeous profusion the gifts of nature; the same kind of fruit trees, laden with their ripe produce, enlivened the view, and relieved the eye from the deep green of the woods which covered the landscape, save here and there the naked spire of a rock washed by the rains and whitened by the sunbeams. The situation of the house appeared to have been chosen not so much for its picturesque beauty, as for the facility of defending it: the only approach was the road which we took, it being impossible to descend the mountains on either side—an impossibility which appeared to increase as we drew nearer to the house.
Four or five of the young indians, or mosotones, rode forward to the house, and when it first opened to our view a crowd of women and children had ranged themselves in front, gaping in wild astonishment at my very unexpected appearance. We rode up to the house, which stood on a small plain, about thirty yards above the level of the stream, and alighted amid the din of questions and answers equally unintelligible to me. The wild stare of curiosity, sweetened with a compassionate expression of countenance, precluded all fear, and I could not avoid saying to myself, Great Author of Nature, I now for the first time behold thy animated works, unadorned with the luxuries, and free, may I hope, from the concomitant vices, of civilization!
The house was a thatched building, about sixty feet long, and twenty broad, with mud walls seven feet high, two doors in the front, opposite to two others at the back, and without windows. The back part on the inside was divided into births, the divisions being formed of canes thinly covered with clay, projecting about six feet from the wall, with a bed place three feet wide, raised two from the floor; the whole appearing somewhat like a range of stalls in a stable. Opposite to these births, and running from one end to the other, excepting the spaces at the two doors, the floor was elevated about ten inches, and was six feet wide: this elevation was partly covered with small carpets and rugs, which with five or six low tables composed the whole of the household furniture. The two doors on the back side led to the kitchen, a range of building as long as the house, but entirely detached from it: here were several hearths, or fire-places, surrounded with small earthen pots, pans and some baskets made of split cane; and over each fire-place was suspended a flat kind of basket holding meat and fish, and answering the purpose of a safe: it is called by the indians a chigua. The horses were unsaddled, and the saddles placed on the floor at one end of the house.
The family, or what I conceived to be the family, was composed of upwards of forty individuals. The father was between forty and fifty years old, and apparently enjoyed all the privileges of a patriarch. There were eight women, whom I considered to be his wives, though during my stay he appeared to associate with only one of them, if allowing her to wait upon him whilst eating and receiving from the others their respective dishes (which she placed successively on the small low table) can be called association. The young men eat the food brought to them at different tables, or in different parts of the house. The women and children adjourned to the kitchen, and there partook of what was left by the male part of the family. From the first day of my arrival to the last of my stay I always ate out of the same dish with the Cacique, or Ulmen, for his rank I did not exactly know. Our fingers supplied the place of forks, and large muscle shells that of spoons: knives I never saw used at table.
Our food chiefly consisted of fresh mutton, jirked beef, fish, or poultry, cut into small pieces and stewed with potatoes or pompions, seasoned with onions, garlic and cayenne pepper, or capsicum. Our breakfast, at about sunrise, was composed of some flour or toasted wheat, coarsely ground, or crushed, and mixed with water, either hot or cold, as it suited the palate of the eater. This flour is produced or manufactured by first roasting the wheat or barley in an earthen pan placed over a slow fire, until the grain takes a pale brown hue. When cold it is ground on a flat stone, about eight inches or a foot wide, and two feet or more in length, as they can best procure it. This is put on the ground, with the end next the female raised about four inches. She then takes another stone, which reaches nearly across the first, and weighs from six to ten pounds; this she presses with her hands, and bruises the grain, which is crushed to a state somewhat like coarsely ground coffee. At the lower end of the stone is generally placed a clean lamb skin, with the wool downwards, which receives the flour, called by the indians machica. Our dinner (made up of the stews or messes which I have mentioned) was generally served at noon in calabashes, or gourds cut in two, being three inches deep, and some of them from twelve to twenty inches in diameter. Our supper, which we took at eight o'clock, was milk, with machica, or potatoes.
I cannot refrain from describing a favourite preparation of milk,
