bracelets are of glass, and their ear-rings, which are square, of silver; they have rings upon each finger, the greater part of which are of silver. It is calculated that more than a hundred thousand marks of this metal are employed in these female ornaments, since they are worn even by the poorest class.

I have already given some account of the dwellings of the ancient Chilians; the Araucanians, tenacious, as are all nations not corrupted by luxury, of the customs of their country, have made no change in their mode of building. But, as they are almost all polygamists, the size of their houses is proportioned to the number of women they can maintain. The interior of these houses is very simple, the luxury of convenience, splendor and show, is altogether unknown in them, and necessity alone is consulted in the selection of their furniture.

They never form towns, but live in scattered villages or hamlets, on the banks of rivers, or in plains that are easily irrigated Their local attachments are strong, each family preferring to live upon the land inherited from its ancestors, which they cultivate sufficiently for their subsistence. The genius of this haughty people, in which the savage still predominates, will not permit them to live in walled cities, which they consider as a mark of servitude.

CHAPTER II.

Division of the Araucanian State; Its political Form and civil Institutions.

ALTHOUGH in their settlements the Araucanians are wanting in regularity, that is by no means the case in the political division of their state, which is regulated with much intelligence. They have divided it from north to south into four uthal-mapus, or parallel tetrarchates, that are nearly equal, to which they give the names of lauquen-mapu, the maritime country; lelbun-mapu, the plain country; inapiremapu, the country at the foot of the Andes; and pire-mapu, or that of the Andes. Each Uthalmapu is divided into five aillaregues, or provinces; and each aillaregue into nine regues, or counties.

The maritime country comprehends the provinces of Arauco, Tucapel, Illicura, Boroa and Nagtolten; the country of the plain includes those of Encol, Puren, Repocura, Maquegua and Mariquina that at the foot of the Andes contains Marven, Colhue, Chacaico, Quecheregua, and Guanagua ; and in that of the Andes is included all the vallies of the Cordilleras, situated within the limits already mentioned, which are inhabited by the Puelches.*

* In the second and third articles of the regulations of Lonquilmo, made in the year 1784, the limits of each Uthalmapu are expressly defined, and its districts marked out. It declares to be ap

These mountaineers, who were formerly a distinct nation in alliance with the Araucanians, are now united under their government and have the same magistrates.

This division, which discovers a certain degree of refinement in their political administration, is of a date anterior to the arrival of the Spaniards, and serves as a basis for the civil government of the Araucanians, which is aristocratic as that of all other barbarous nations has been. This species of republic consists of three orders of nobility, each subordinate to the other, the Toquis, the Apo-Uimenes, and the Ulmenes, all of whom have their respective vassals. The Toquis who may be styled tetrarchs, are four in number, and preside over the uthal-mapus. The appellation of Toqui is derived from the verb toquin, which signifies to judge or command; they are independant of each other, but confederated for the public welfare. The Apo-Ulmenes, or Arch-Ulmenes govern the provinces under their respective Toquis. The Ulmenes, who are the prefects of the regues, or counties, are dependant upon the Apo-Ulmenes. This dependance, however, is confined almost entirely to military affairs. Although the Ulmenes are the lowest in the scale of

pertaining to that of the Cordilleras, the Huilliches of Changole, those of Gayolto and Rucachoroy to the south, the Puelches and Indian Pampas to the north, from Malalque and the frontiers of Mendoza to the Mamilmapu in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, the whole forming a corporate body with the Puelches and Pehuenches of Maule, Chillan and Antuco. So that at present, in case of an infraction of the treaty, it may easily be known what Uthalmapu is to make satisfaction.

the Araucanian aristocracy, the superior ranks, gene. rally speaking, are comprehended under the same title, which is equivalent to that of Cacique.

The discriminative badge of the Toqui is a species of battle-axe, made of porphyry or marble. The Apo-Ulmenes, and the Ulmenes carry staves with silver heads, but the first by way of distinction have a ring of the same metal around the middle of their staves. All these dignities are hereditary in the male line, and proceed in the order of primogeniture. Thus have the dukes, the counts and marquisses of the military aristocracy of the north been established, from time immemorial, under different names, in a corner of South America.

With its resemblance to the feudal system, this government contains also almost all its defects. The Toqui possesses but the shadow of sovereign authority. The triple power that constitutes it is vested in the great body of the nobility, who decide every important question, in the manner of the ancient Germans, in a general diet, which is called Butacoyog or Aucacoyog, the great council, or council of the Araucanians. This assembly is usually held in some large plain, where they combine the pleasures of the table with their public deliberations.

Their code of laws which is traditionary, is denominated Admapu, that is to say, the customs of the country. In reality these laws are nothing more than primordial usages, or tacit conventions that have been established among them, as was originally the case with almost all the laws of other nations; they have, consequently, all the defects peculiar to

such systems, since, as they are not written, they ean neither be very compendious, nor made sufficiently public.

The clearest and most explicit of their political and fundamental laws are those that regulate the limits of each authority; the order of succession in the Toquiates and in the Ulminates, the confederation of the four Tetrarchates, the choice and the power of the commanders in chief in time of war, and the right of convoking the general diets, which is the privilege of the Toquis; all these laws have for their object the preservation of liberty and the established form of government. According to them, two or more states cannot be held under the rule of the same chief. Whenever the male branch of the reigning family becomes extinct, the vassals recover their natural right of electing their own chief from that family which is most pleasing to them. But before he is installed, he must be presented to the Toqui of their Uthalmapu, who gives notice of his election, in order that the new chief may be acknowledged and respected by all in that quality.

The subjects are not, as under the feudal government, liable to a levy, or to any kind of personal service, except in time of war. Neither are they obliged to pay any contributions to their chiefs, who must subsist themselves by means of their own pro perty. They respect them, however, as their superíors, or rather as the first among their equals; they also attend to their decisions, and escort them whenever they go out of the state. These chiefs, elated with their authority, would gladly extend its limits,