Most of them are illiterate, but to their credit they have in recent
years been endeavoring to secure for their children better education
than that afforded them. The educational facilities of the country
are not good, but the majority of the children of this class of
farmers secure sufficient technical training in the schools to suffice
for their simple lives. They are orderly, hard working people, and
generally honest, as they interpret the meaning of the term. The
Chilean characteristic of sticking tenaciously to custom and tradition
is exemplified in the home life of these people. Their condition is
little better or above that of Land Owners No. 1 and 2. From choice,
rather than necessity, they follow the custom of their Indian ancestors
by sitting upon the ground, a stone or a billet of wood; the food
for the family is served from one dish, there being as many spoons as
persons to be served. The materials which enter into the composition of
the food of these farmer folk consisting of wheat, corn, beans, fruit,
pepper, etc., are ground between stones. In fact the grinding stones
are the most useful utensils in the equipment of the kitchen. They
consist of one large flat stone with a smooth surface, and a smaller
one, oval shaped. The material is placed upon the large stone, and the
other in the hand of the operator is used to crush and grind the grain
or dried vegetables to the proper consistency. This work is always done
by the women. In the kitchen may be found a few pots, clay dishes, tin
cups, wooden spoons and quantities of dirt. Occupying the kitchen, and
apparently upon the most intimate terms with members of the family are
pigs, goats, dogs, and chickens. If there are guests in the house, food
is served in the dining room with some show of formality, but when the
family is alone, the food is served in one dish from which the members
help themselves with spoons until the supply is exhausted. It is then
refilled with some other kind of food and the meal continues until
all are satisfied. With a change of food the same dish and spoons are
used without being washed. Tea and coffee are sometimes served when
strangers are present, but when the family is alone, mate only is
served as a drink, with their meals. The mate cup is filled and passed
to the head of the house who drinks the contents through a “bombilla.”
The cup is filled again and again, each member of the family drinking
out of the same vessel and through the same bombilla. When there are
no guests in the house the servants sometimes form part of the family
group, eating out of the same pot, and having their turn at the mate
through the family bombilla.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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