859 
away. ‘The marriage can not take place until the bridegroom has a house 
of his own. ~ 
A couple ordinarily has three or four children. The old man of the 
rancheria baptises a new-born infant when it is two or three days old, 
giving it the name of any object which particularly impressed itself upon 
his mind as he was on his way to the ceremony or which happens to 
occur to him at the moment. If he stubs his toe on a stone, for instance, 
Stone may be the baptismal name. The Tingians have no family names. 
They are very kind to their sick and take the best possible care of 
them. They have some knowledge of the uses of medicinal plants, but 
depend chiefly upon canaos or feasts in attempting to drive away the 
evil spirits through whose influence they believe illness to be caused. 
They have a great variety of cafaos and each one has its peculiar 
and characteristic sign. The sign of a feast, held in order to drive 
away illness, is an egg balanced on the point of a lance thrust into 
the ground. Obviously, much skill is required to make the egg stand 
on a lance point and the lance must be placed in a very sheltered spot, 
as a breath of air will cause the egg to fall. Hogs or other animals are 
killed, according to the directions of the medicine man or medicine 
woman who has charge of the case. The flesh of the animal sacrificed 
is eaten, basi circulates freely, and the crowd is apt to get very drunk. 
The feast ordinarily lasts one or two days. If the anito is not driven 
away, but kills its victim, the body of the deceased may be kept in the 
house for ten or fifteen days until the value of his personal property 
has been expended on the funeral feast, or so long as any relatives are 
still absent. (Pl. LXVI, fig. 2.) 
The dead are dressed in their best clothes, adorned with their most 
valuable ornaments, and are buried under their houses. When a very 
poor man dies, if he has no property which can be disposed of in order 
to meet the expenses of a feast, and no good clothes in which he may 
be interred, he is buried at once near the outskirts of the rancheria. 
The grave is protected with stones and logs and is sometimes roofed 
over. (Pl. LXV, fig. 2.) Children are buried soon after death without 
any special ceremony, although the parents of a deceased child remain 
silent, when in their houses, during a period of ten or fifteen days, out of 
respect to its memory. 
Near the dwelling houses of a 7%ngian rancherva there often may be 
seen certain structures, some of which look like children’s playhouses, 
while others are nearly or quite as large as dwelling houses. Such 
structures are known as balaua. (Pl. LXVII, fig. 2.) In one of them 
the father of the family, or some person representing him if he is dead, 
takes up his quarters for a period of ninety days after the conclusion of 
a funeral feast. During this time he may not enter his own house. If 
the deceased person was too poor to have a funeral feast the occupant of 
the balaua must remain there for four or five months. 
