The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-09

does not weigh more than fifty pounds.
With me at the time of my visit to her
was Herr Otto Kehren. German connected
with Don Augustine Balza, the inspector
general Of colonization of Chile, who was
also of our party. Herr Kehren is one of
the finest looking and best formed men
have ever met. He is over six feet tall and
he weighs $50 pounds. stood him up be-
side the little great-grandmother-in- and
made photograph of the two. The con-
trast was that of giant and pigmy, of old
age and youth, of life and death, of dry
bones ard rosy flesh. The fact that size
and conditions have little to do with lon
gevity seemed to me apparent as l looked
at this dried-up centenarian. She was small
at her birth and she had lived more than
a century and a quarter in squalid hut,
half fed and poorly clad. She was, when
saw her, dressed only in a ragged navy
blue blanket. which was fastened by pin
of silver over her skinny breast bone Her
lean, shriveled arms were bare to the Shout
der, and her wrinkled legs were naked to
the middle of the calf She was deaf and
blind. Her eyes were grown over by what
seemed to me like two little red buttons of
flesh and her face was corrugated with
lines like withered apple She was led out
of the hut by one of her great-grandchil-
dren plump, juicy little Indian maiden of
eighteen, and the contrast between eighteen
and 100 was striking in the extreme. I was
told that the old woman still had the use
of her mental faculties and that she was
able to do much of the spinning for the
family. Her -granddaughters-in-law
seemed proud Of her, and they smiled and
were grateful for the money we gave her.
DAINTY INDIAN DISHES.
In this hut, as 1 have said, there were
two Araucanian women cooking. Their
utensils were several iron pots and they
had neither ovens nor stoves The fires
were built in holes in the ground inside
the hut and the smoke was so thick that
1 almost felt it closing behind me as
pushed my way through it. The women
were roasting potatoes and green corn in
the Goals, and / am told they make stews
of various kinds. Much of their food is
eaten raw and this is so at times with both
meal and meat. Raw mutton and beef cut
up in small pieces is one of the chief dishes
as an appetizer and raw alcohol is drunk
between the courses. They have, it is said.
a way of taking a living sheep and pepper
ing and sailing it's lungs while it is dying.
This is done by hanging the sheep up by it's
forelegs and stuffing its windpipe with salt
and red pepper. While the sheep is gasping
under this treatment it's jugular vein is
skillfully cut, pulled out and the stream of
blood turned into the windpipe. This car
ries the salt and pepper down to the lungs
and the sheep at once swells up and dies.
The lungs are at once taken out of the still
quivering animal, are cut in slices and are
served with warm life blood, having thus
been seasoned to taste. At all feasts the
men are served first, the women acting as
the walters and taking what is left.
These Araucanians have queer customs of
love and marriage. A father always expects
to get a certain price for his daughter in
the shape of cattle, sheep, horses or other
presents, and the deal is made beforehand
the groom paying as little as he can. The
young man then comes with his friends to
the house of his to-be father-in-law and
kidnaps his bride A dark night is usually
selected, but the time is often known and
the girl has her female friends with her for
the occasion. 1t is a matter of wedding
etiquette that she should fight against be-
ing married, and all the females and women
of the family join with her in repeling the
groom. The friends of the groom help him
and there is a lively skirnish in the brides
home, which ends in her being dragged cut
by her future husband He swings her on
to his horse and goes off on the gallop, maxi
ing for the nearest wood. The women pur-
sue, but the groom, of course soon dis
tances them Having reached the forest, he
takes his lady love with him into it's recesses
and there spends the honeymoon. This lasts
but few days, when the two return to the
house of the groom and are considered mar
ried. Then the husband takes the presents,
ho bod 10 fh0 Co. Of hi 20
and the ceremony is over. If later on the
husband wishes divorce he may, under
certain conditions, send back his wife to her
father, and if she proves unfaithful to him
he has the right to kill her. If she deserts
him and goes back home of her own accord
nothing is said, but if she should marry
the first one for the price he originally paid
to her father for her.
CUSTOMS OF BIRTH AND DEATH.
The Araucanians tie their papooses on
boards and carry them upon their backs,
much as our squaws do. The babies are
tied to the carrying board as soon as they
are born and are kept fastened their until
they are old enough to be taught to walk.
They are bright-eyed, healthy-looking chill
dren and they stand treatment that would
kill an American babe. Take the birth, for
instance. When an Araucanian baby is ex-
pected it's mother goes alone into the woods
and camps on the bank of a stream until
her child is born After the birth has taken
place she bathes the baby in the brook, then
dries it, wraps it up in skin or cloth and
ties it to the board. She sings it on her
back by a strap or rope tied about her fore
head and thus carries il home. For a year
or so thereafter she carries the little one
about with her wherever she goes, taking it
to the fields with her when she goes there
to work.
They have queer ideas of death. They do
not believe in the Christian religion, as do
to a certain extent the descendants of the
Incas and the other Indians further south.
The Catholic missionaries have worried
among them with but little success. They
are like our Indians in their belief in a
great father or a great good spirit and an
evil spirit. These two they think are al
ways fighting one another, and the evil spirit
is supposed to follow a man even into the
grave. For this reason they stand about
the grave at the time of deaths with their
lances and make noises to brighten the evil
spirits away. When person dies he is sell
dom buried at once. His family so am
told, fear he will be lonesome on his way to
the happy hunting ground. and they try to
accustorn him to solitude They hang the