. Bulletin. Ethnology. VOL. 2] THE ARAUCANIANS—COOPER 707 Dwellings.—Very often huts (ruka, tabu) (pi. 153, bottom) were located on eminences; thus friendly or unfriendly visitors could be spied some distance off, and an eye could be kept on the livestock. More commonly, dwellings were substantially built of timber or cane framework, oval, polygonal, or rectangular in ground plan, and with thatch roof reaching nearly or quite to the ground level (Hg. 72). Dimensions varied, from 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m.) long by 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 m.) wide, to 66 feet (20 m.) long by 33 feet (10 m.) wide, o
. Bulletin. Ethnology. VOL. 2] THE ARAUCANIANS—COOPER 707 Dwellings.—Very often huts (ruka, tabu) (pi. 153, bottom) were located on eminences; thus friendly or unfriendly visitors could be spied some distance off, and an eye could be kept on the livestock. More commonly, dwellings were substantially built of timber or cane framework, oval, polygonal, or rectangular in ground plan, and with thatch roof reaching nearly or quite to the ground level (Hg. 72). Dimensions varied, from 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m.) long by 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 m.) wide, to 66 feet (20 m.) long by 33 feet (10 m.) wide, occasionally even larger. A cacique's dwelling observed by Smith (1855, p. 295) was estimated by him as circa 140 feet (43 m.) long by 30 feet (9 m.) wide, with the ridge pole about 15 feet ( m.) above ground. Marino de Lovera's figures (1865, p. 124), 400 to 800 feet (122 to 244 m.) square, for dwellings in Cauten, appear too high, even though he explicitly states that he measured them several Figure 72.—Schematic cross section of the interior of a Mapuche dwelling, or ruka. (After Claude Joseph, 1931, fig. 9.) Around Imperial, Pedro de Valdivia (1861, p. 55; in Gay, 1846-52, 1:142) in 1551 found well-built dwellings of large planks, many of these plank houses being very big, with from 2 to 4 and 8 entrances. Plank houses, with grass roofs, were also in use in the late 18th century among the Huilliche of the Chilotan archipelago (Gonzalez de Agiieros, 1791, pp. 111-12). Very large shelters, with from 4 to 6 entrances, were also reported in 1558 in the Coronados Gulf region, by Goicueta (1852, p. 93). In a single house there sometimes lived, according to Sors (1921, 38:46), as many as 80 or 90 persons, though 30 to 40 was the more common number. Most huts, however, at least in Mapuche territory, had only one or two entrances. Doors and windows were lacking. An opening or openings in the center of the roof served as smoke hole. A small conical thatched hut was al
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