Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-27

forthcoming, the thief is not puniseed but
is required to return the stolen articles un-
jured; or, If that is impossible, to pay their
thief is unable to pay, his friend must pay
for him; and if they will not or cannot do
so, then the friends of the looser may take
1t out of the culprit in deadly combat lie
Is challenged to fight the strongest man
among them; and if the thief should happen
to kill his adversary he is completely vindi-
Gated, his success being conclusive evidence
that he is not guilty and that q mistake has
been made in accusing him, and if he seeks
revenge by numbering the "eye-witnesses
nobody interferes with him.
SOME ODD DOMESTIC CUSTOMS.
It is lawful among all the Araucanians
| for a man to have as many wives as he likes,
and the established rule is that each day
every wife shall give her husband a dish OF
food, prepared at her own fire. Therefore
the number of fires in each hut indicates
the number of wives, and the polite way of
ascertaining the size of warriors harem is
to ask him the number of fires in his house.
A woman about to become mother is COM
PEELED to flee to some place where is water
and strict seclusion, and there to endure her
time of trial entirely alone When she
starts on this journey she filings a stone at
the sun, if it is shining, or at the moon or
bright star, if it be in the night time, pray
ing, May my child be as bright as thou
art, and may my suffering be as swift as the
flight of this stone.''
Soon as the baby is born she bathes 1t and
herself in the cold stream, no matter how
inclement the weather, and then returns to
her home. But even then her trials are
hardly begun, for, instead of finding friends
to receive and care for her, the house is de-
serted-husband, mother, everybody, hav-
ing gone elsewhere. Even the furniture,
such as it is, the cooking utensils, food
everything except some skins for her to lie
on, and new suit of clothes-have been re-
moved. For eight days she must remain
there alone, to live or die, starve or feed
herself, as best she can, when her friends
return. Then there is great rejoicing, and
the baby is named with ceremony-gener-
ally after some bird, flower or animal-and
period of feasting ensues.
HOW CHILDREN MUST SUFFER-
The ice-cold bath which the infant has re-
ceived In the stream upon whose banks he
was born, is an appropriate commencement
to his career of hardship He is firmly
bound to board, SO that he can conven-
iently be set up in corner, and his cold
bath continued daily, without fire and with
but scanty allowances of clothing. In order
to make him hardy he is compelled through
out babyhood to sleep out of doors in all
kinds of weather, and Is never given a
mouthful of meat-though the dogs may
sneak into the fire and are generally well
fed. Should the lad become too fat of his
vegetable diet his friends at once take him
in hand. He is sent on very long errand,
on which he if required to be fleet, and if he
M % Of ba ic od hu
trained runners, who pfick him with sharp
thorns and bits of bone, to let the blood out
so that he may run faster. He is then de-
MED salt, as his parents believe it is that
which makes him heavy. If the poor child
dies of exposure or this ordeal, the relatives
rejoice that he has so soon become happy
bumble-bee, which is infinitely better than
to have grown up sickly Araucanian. 1t
is the survival of the fittest, and the urchin
who thrives under such harsh treatment
(and most of them do) soon commences his
education. The great school is the
mischevous Cici. When the lad arrives at
the proper age he is taken every day to
some dark recess, and there the Evil one
teaches him the art of public speaking.
This exercise is kept up until he becomes
man and has learned how to appear well be-
fore an audience-according to Araucanian
ideas-and to entertain the wise men with a
fine flow of language. The education ends
here.
TRICKS OF MEDICINE MEN.
1t is believed that all sickness is due to
witches, and sometimes, when the afflicted
is rich in squaws and ponies, and the
medicine man desires fat fee, he decides
upon a wonderful surgical operation. The
doctor, bending over the patient, with
blanket covering them both and shielding
them well from view, proceeds to remove
the sick mans stomach, heart, lungs, liver
and bowels, in search of the poisen admins
tered by the witch. He always finds it af-
ter long search, and shows to the patient
and his astonlshed friends lizards tail,
which is considered the most deadly poison,
and which he claims to have found secreted
in one of the vital organs. Then he calls
upon the friends to witness the fact that,
though he has just cut the man open and
turned him inside cut, as it were, not a
trace of the wonderful operation remains, so
that the man is not only free from poisen,
but perfectly healed and as sound as before
In Araucania the evil one teaches doctors
many skillful tricks in slight of hand, such
as changing noses with people, taking out
the eyes and vital organs without pain, and
of thrusting sharpened stick clear through
the stomach of any individual. The last
named trick is said to be performed in full
view Of all the people, to their unbounded
admiration, and the man who has learned to
do it is complete graduate from Cici's col
lege, and an honor to his tribe and genera