BURIAL. RELIGION. 535 



coction of chalas and the juice of berberries mixed with 

 water. 



The death of a native is attended with peculiar ceremonies. 

 The bones having been as much as possible freed from the 

 flesh, are hung " on high, upon canes or twigs woven together, 

 to dry and whiten with the sun and rain." One of the most 

 distinguished women is chosen to perform the disgusting 

 office of making the skeleton, and, during the process, "the 

 Indians, covered with long mantles of skins, and their faces 

 blackened with soot, walk round the tent with long poles or 

 lances in their hands, singing in a mournful tone of voice 

 and striking the ground, to frighten away the Valichus or 



evil beings The horses of the dead are killed, that 



he may have wherewithal to ride upon in the Alhue Mapu, 

 or Country of the Dead." In about a year the bones are 

 "packed together in a hide, and placed upon one of the 

 deceased's favourite horses, kept alive for that purpose," and 

 in this manner the natives bear the relics, sometimes to a 

 very great distance, until they arrive at the proper burial- 

 place, where the ancestors of the dead man are lying. The 

 bones are arranged in their proper positions, and fastened by 

 string. The skeleton is then placed, with others, in a square 

 pit, clothed in the best robes, and adorned with beads, fea- 

 thers, etc. The arms of the deceased are buried with him, 

 and round the grave are ranged several dead horses, raised on 

 their feet, and supported with sticks.* Sometimes a cairn of 

 stones is raised over the grave.-f* 



Falkner regarded the Patagonians as Polytheists, but we 

 do not know much about their religion. According to the 

 missionaries, neither the Patagonians nor the Araucanians had 

 any ideas of prayer, or "any vestige of religious worship."^: 



* Falkner's Patagonia, pp. 118, f The Voice of Pity, vol. ii. pp: 



119. 37, 95. 



t Fitzroy, vol. ii. p. 158. 



