hen pots, or roasting it in hot sand, and by grinding it into meal,
which they prepared in the form of gruel, of cakes, and of bread. Meal
made of parched grain was called _murque_, and when made from grain
merely dried in the sun _rugo_. Of the first they made gruels, and a
kind of beverage still used for breakfast. Of the second they made
cakes, and a kind of bread called _covque_, which was baked in holes dug
in the sides of hills or the banks of rivers, in the form of ovens, many
of which are still to be seen. They had even invented a kind of sieve,
called _chignigue_, to separate the bran from the flour, and employed
leaven in baking their bread. From the grains already mentioned, and the
fruits or berries of different trees, they made nine or ten different
kinds of fermented liquors, which they made and kept in jars of
earthen-ware.

Having adopted the settled mode of life indispensable to an agricultural
people, the Chilese were collected into families or septs more or less
numerous, in those situations which were best suited for procuring
subsistence, where they established themselves in large villages, called
_cara_, or in small ones called _lov_. These villages consisted only of
a number of huts irregularly dispersed within sight of each other, and
some of them still subsist in several parts of Spanish Chili. The most
considerable of these are _Lampa_ in the province of St Jago, and _Lora_
in the province of Maule. In each village or hamlet they had a chief
named _Ulmen_, who was subject in certain points, to the supreme ruler
of the tribe, or _apo-ulmen_. The succession of these chiefs was by
hereditary descent; and from their title of office, which signifies a
rich man, it would appear that wealth had been the original means of
raising these families to the rank they now occupy, contrary to the
usages of other savage nations in which strength, skill in hunting, or
martial prowess appear to have been the steps by which individuals have
risen to rank and power. The authority of these chiefs or _ulmens_
appears to have been extremely limited, being merely of a directive
nature and not absolute. The right of private property was fully
established among the Chilese, as every individual was the absolute
master of the land he cultivated, and of the produce of his industry,
both of which descended to his posterity by hereditary succession.

The houses or huts of the Chilese were built in a quadrangular form, of
woo