The houses or huts of the Chilese were built in a quadrangular form, of wood covered with clay, and the roof covered with rushes; though in some instances the walls were of brick, the use of which they seem to have learned from the Peruvians, as they used the Peruvian term tica for that material.  From the wool of the Chilihueques they manufactured cloth for their apparel, using the spindle and distaff for spinning this wool into yarn, and two different kinds of looms for weaving the yarn into cloth.  One of these, called guregue, is not very unlike the ordinary loom of Europe; but the other is vertical or upright, and called uthalgue, from the verb uthalen, signifying to stand upright.  From a verb in their language, nudaven, which signifies to sew, they must have used some kind of needle to sew their garments; but I know not of what substance it was composed.  They seem even to have been acquainted with the art of embroidery, called dumican in their language.  From excellent clay which is found abundantly in Chili, they made pots, plates, cups, and large jars to hold their fermented liquors, baking these vessels in holes or ovens made in the declivities of hills; and they even used a kind of mineral earth called colo, for varnishing these vessels.  Besides these vessels of clay, they made others of hard wood, and even of marble; some vases of which excellently polished have been dug out from under a large heap of stones in the mountains of Arauco.  From the earth they extracted gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead, and employed these metals in a variety of useful and curious works.  Particularly from their native copper, which is a kind of bell-metal and very hard, they made axes, hatchets, and other edged tools, but in small quantities, as these are very rarely met with in their ancient sepulchres; where, on the contrary, hatchets made of a species of basalt or very hard stone are very often found.  They seem even to have known the use of iron, as it is called panilgue in their language, and weapons made of it are termed chiuquel, while those made of other materials are called nulin.  A smith likewise is called ruthave, from ruthan, signifying to work in iron.

The ancient Chilese had discovered the art of making salt, both from sea water and from inland salt springs; calling the former chiadi, and the latter lilco-chiadi, or salt from the water of rocks.  They procured dyes of various colours for their clothes, both from the juice of plants and from mineral earths, and had discovered the art of fixing them by means of the polcura, an aluminous or astringent mineral.  Instead of soap, they used the back of the quillai, which is an excellent substitute.  In their language there are many words discriminative of various kinds of baskets and mats, which they manufactured from various vegetables.  From a plant called gnocchia,