Among the great body of Araucanian speakers dwelling in Central Chile at the time of the Spanish conquest a more definite culture existed. Religious beliefs were probably genuinely Chilean, since they are quite distinct from the ideas found on the other side of the Andes. The supreme Deity Pillan was a sky-god with his dwelling in the volcanos, and was propitiated by that world-wide institution the medicine man, here called a Machí. Faith still survives, but so completely has soothsaying been relegated to women that a case has been known of a male Araucanian dressing as a woman and keeping up an elaborate life-long farce in order to hold the berth. “Cures” of the sick by fumigation and various drinks, and yearly ceremonies under the sacred canelo (a kind of cinnamon) tree, called forth the major symbols of the Araucanian cult, but there were neither temples nor images of deities.
The aboriginal Araucanian may be credited with the invention or adoption of chicha, a fermented drink made of berries or maize (and after the coming of the Spaniards, of apples from the trees planted by colonists or missionaries); of the poncho, well woven of guanaco wool, or later of sheep’s wool; and of the cultivation of maize and the potato. Native to the West Coast, the potato grows wild today over the chief part of Chile and the adjacent islands, and formed a valuable contribution to the limited list of pre-Spanish foods. The use of certain seaweeds, with cochayuyo as the most succulent, in stews, was doubtless an aboriginal habit; it survives in South Chile, and in such coastal markets as that of Valdivia this dried sea-weed is sold and eaten in enormous quantities. The seeds or nuts of the Chilean pine formed another part of the old diet. The method of cooking food in stone-lined holes in the ground is a native custom that remained in use among both “Indians” and Creoles in the more remote districts until recent times. There seems no doubt that the game called by the Spanish “chueca,” played with a ball struck with curved sticks, is genuinely Chilean; it bears a strong resemblance to hockey. The bolas with which the Chilean huaso (cowboy) is so efficient was not known on the West of the Andes until after the Spanish conquest. But with the speedy adoption of the horse and rapid increase of cattle this implement from the Patagonian pampas became widely used. Within thirty years after the entry of Pedro de Valdivia into Chile the horse had spread throughout the inhabited part of Chile, and mounted Araucanians, hardy and expert, were giving battle to the cavalry of the Spaniard.
The Araucanian fought to retain his independence for over three hundred years. It was a contest in which he was doomed to fail in the long run, but he received from his enemies unstinted appreciation of his courage. The famous poem “La Araucana” written by Ercilla, a soldier in Valdivia’s army, embodies a Spanish concept of chivalry rather than that of the Mapuche; his noble Indian is a mediæval Spanish knight, and the verses frequently quoted as proof of Araucanian virtues display chiefly the convention of generous sentimentality infusing the European literature of the sixteenth century. But undoubtedly the Araucanian possessed qualities that all the world agrees to admire: he defended his own, and showed tenacity and ability in that defence. From a series of tribes living loosely in family groups, obeying no overlord in times of peace, the native folk evolved a strong fighting confederation. The Toquis, or wartime leaders, supported by their Ulmen or district chiefs, developed genuine skill in warfare, and turned the whole of the tribes living south of the Maule into a mobile fighting community. The task was rendered easier by the old nomadic habits of a large part of the population.
The hostile relations between the earliest Spaniards and the Araucanians became crystallised with succeeding years, a feeling constantly renewed by women-hunting and house-burning raids upon the Spanish colonies, followed or preceded by ruthless attacks upon the Indian camps. The repeated treaties and parliaments arranged by the Spanish authorities with the Indian leaders during later colonial times were little more than symbols of optimism.
As far as Spain was concerned, good intentions towards the original owners of the Americas were frequently pricked to action by the priesthood, consistent advocates of the indigenous folk. When Charles V, pressed by Bartolomé de las Casas, published in the year 1542 the “New Laws” relating to the treatment of American natives it was with a determination to secure the Indians’ well-being which was only surpassed by the determination of the colonists to make the greatest possible industrial use of these folk. “Our principal intention and will” declared the king, “has always been to preserve and augment the numbers of Indians, that they may be taught the articles of our holy Catholic faith and may be well treated as fellow men and our subjects, as indeed they are.” The strict accompanying rules against enslavement or overwork of the Indians, and the minute instructions to the Audiencias and Procurator Fiscal were avoided with dexterity in the colonies from Mexico southwards, and not all the efforts of the missionary padres could render them effective, although these and similar laws were repeated by successive monarchs, and notably by Philip III, at the instance of that famous apostle of the West Coast, Father Luis de Valdivia. It cannot be said that, with regard to the Araucanians, this backing was either badly needed at the time or requited with gratitude; but it was followed by missionary efforts aiming at Christianisation of these wild and stubborn people. The Father Nicolas Mascardi, working in South Chile about 1670, “merited the crown of martyrdom that he received”; nevertheless the good Philippe de la Laguna took up the task, converting “Puelches and Poyas” in the mainland region opposite Chiloé, but making, apparently, little impression of permanence. The intransigeance of the southerners saved them for a time, for the more amenable Picunche and simple Changos, accepting the foreign yoke, rapidly diminished—the survivors losing caste with such finality that Ocampo, writing of West Coast conditions in 1610, declared that the Indians were generally downtrodden by the Negroes imported to supplement them as workers, “with ill-treatment both of word and deed, so that the Indians called the Negroes their lords, and the Negroes called the Indians dogs.” It should be said that Ocampo’s comment applied more to Peru than to Chile, where neither climate nor rich mines warranted the introduction of any large number of African slaves.
Today the Araucanian who resisted Spanish control is not in better case than the docile native of the more northerly part of the West Coast. Their definite overthrow as an independent people dates from 1882, when Chilean troops seasoned by the campaign with Bolivia and Peru marched across “la Frontera” and put an end forever to Araucania as a native stronghold in the middle of republican Chile. By this time Valdivia and Llanquihue had been colonised, and Araucania stood, fenced against north and south, in the way of free communication and development. A land reservation has been allotted in the province of Cautín, its limits beginning about half a mile outside the town of Temuco. Here dwell some 40,000 to 50,000 Mapuches. The majority are nominally Christianised, and in addition to the state schools, there are a couple of well-run British mission establishments near Quepe, where farming and handcrafts are taught. The younger folk take fairly readily to instruction, but on the whole the Indians prefer to withdraw themselves from contact with all foreigners, to live in the native rucas, huts of mud and thatch, to prepare food in the ancient manner, and to work only when a little money is needed to buy provisions. The women are adepts at the loom, weaving beautiful ponchos or mantos, and boldly patterned and tinted rugs and saddle-cloths. Now and again one meets in the streets of Temuco a group of Araucanians with rugs for sale: there are two or three women and the male head of the family, who is credited with doing no work but with careful shepherding of his household. The women have a certain good looks; the faces are extraordinarily broad, pale bronze in hue, with a touch of red on the cheeks; the hair is straight and black, plaited and bound with bright ribbons. The dress consists of a fold of cloth wound round the waist and held in place by a gaily patterned belt; a bodice, and a large shawl fastened with a big silver topo or pin. A wealthy woman will wear silver ornaments across the forehead, in the ears and on the neck in addition to the almost indispensable topo, and no Araucanian will sell these adornments from the person, although in hard times they may be taken to the pawnshop.
Araucanian Indian, Spinning.
Note the solid wooden wheel of the country cart.
Araucanian Mother and Child.
The hide-and-wood cradle is slung upon the woman’s back when she goes outside the hut.