Page:A history of Chile.djvu/428

 382 A HISTORY OF CHILE woman, the Machi, prophetess, seer of the tribe, alone pretends to have supernatural gifts and is the village doctor. Sickness is caused by a visitation of the Evil Spirit and he must be exorcised, when the patient will recover. This task the old woman performs with di- vers dismal wails and incantations and the burning of branches of the sacred canelo tree, whose leaves have great medicinal virtue in cases of fever. The prophetess of the tribe, when her remedies fail and her patient dies, must point out the person whose evil eye caused the death. That person is then slain by the relatives of the deceased if he can be found. This is the most barbarous custom connected with the Indian religion, but it is hardly worse than burning witches. As a rule the Araucanians are courteous in their man- ners and honorable in all their engagements. They are brave in battle, but not cruel. They cultivate the soil, and are permanently attached to their lands. They are obedient to their own toquis, laws and customs, and kind to each other and to their animals. An Arauca- nian's horse loves him and follows him like a pet. They are a hospitable people and not treacherous. The}' received the Spaniards hospitably when they first visited their countr}' and only rose against them when they found that they had come as invaders. It is said that whoever receives the toqui's hand in friendship may travel with impunity throughout the Indian terri- tories. So long as tWe traveler comports himself as he should, he will be in no more danger than if he were traveling among his own countrymen. Though he is a superstitious individual, the Arau- canian is yet an imaginative and not altogether uncon- genial person. He is a natural diplomatist and talks a Jong time before he comes to the point. On more than one occasion in his great palavers with the Span-