Children of South America

by Katharine A. Hodge

“The religion of these people is much like that of the Red Indians. They acknowledge a ‘Spirit’ who is the Author of, and Master over all.”

Take your pen and underline three places on the map, viz.: “Temuco, Cholcol, Quepe.” There the Mapuche Indians live, and amongst them labour the missionaries of the South American Missionary Society.

“Mapuche” means, “people of the land,” and a successful, spiritual work is being carried on especially amongst the children. There are schools for boys and girls at Quepe, also at Temuco, ten miles away; and at Cholcol, a small Chilian town twenty-one miles from Temuco, there are boarding-schools for boys and girls, day-schools, a dispensary, and a church.

Rev. G. Daunt says: “In the old days they were all clever hunters. They could glide through the forest without making a sound, and could imitate exactly the cries of various birds and beasts. They showed great skill in following up a ‘trail,’ and could observe the slightest movement of leaf or twig in the pursuit of prey or of an enemy.

“Now, the Mapuche are losing their hunting habits, and are settling down to a peaceable and industrious life, growing corn, and feeding cattle. But in their games they still act as if scenting and following up a trail.

“The Indian boys and girls have to work as well. In the summer, when the crops are ripening, the children are seen in the fields guarding the sheep, cattle, horses, and pigs, so that these may not enter and destroy the harvest.

“The girls draw water from the wells and streams, and help their mothers to make and mend the clothes they wear. The boys, with their axes, form ploughs, and carts, and with their knives carve toys of wood or cut belts and purses from the skins of animals into strange shapes.”

Miss Wetherell gives a very interesting pen-picture of school-life with the Mapuche boys and girls at Quepe:—

“The body of one of our schoolboys was committed to the grave. Poor laddie, he came into the hospital about two years ago with a diseased leg, which the doctor had to remove. His people, finding that he would be unable to help in the farm work, promptly deserted him, so he was kept on at the hospital, and during school time he was out here. He got on very well with his lessons, but he never got really strong, and eventually he had to return to the hospital, where he died. The following morning we all went across to the little Mapuche Cemetery, and buried him there. It must have seemed very strange to these Mapuche boys and girls, this quiet Christian burial—the simple service, the flowers strewn on the grave, and the hymn sung as the soil was being shovelled in.

“We have one Chilian boarder, a very nice gentle lad, whom we all like very much, and we hope he will one day be a true Christian. He saved the life of an Englishman in Argentina under quite romantic circumstances; and his master, who is in England, wished to leave him where he could be educated and treated kindly—so he is here. At present his thoughts are chiefly occupied with football and his lessons, football of course first.