158 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



DEATH, AND BELIEF IN LIFE AFTER DEATH 



OMENS OF DEATH 



Death can be expected in a place near which nocturnal calls of 

 certain animals are heard. In Alepue area the cry of a fox indicates 

 a death within a year ; within several years after the call note of the 

 pun'chiukii (bird) or that of the guadrado (bird) is heard. The 

 guadrado's call note sounds like that of a kitten. (The interpreter 

 explained: "Light at night is found in a Mapuche ruka only when 

 there is a sick person in it. These birds are probably attracted by the 

 light, fly toward it, and, of course, do their screeching there.") In all 

 areas death is forecast by the nocturnal cries of an invisible bird 

 known as choiichon, which also forecasts sickness (cf. pp. 109-110). 

 'T had just come home from visiting a sick boy," said a non-Arauca- 

 nian herbalist, "and was having a cup of tea. It was late in the 

 evening. A young boy came running in to me, and in frightened 

 tones said, T just heard the choiichon sing, and I know someone will 

 die.' The sick boy whom I had visited died within a few hours. It 

 is such coincidences that clinch beliefs." 



CAUSES OF DEATH 



Unless death is due to an accident, violence, or suicide, it is believed 

 to be unfailingly the result of poisoning administered either directly or 

 through witchcraft, "except in the early days when our men were 

 also killed by the enemy." Usually, death follows sickness. Instant 

 death has been brought about, however, in Panguipulli area, by mixing 

 a few drops of the venom of a frog found in the area, a potent poison, 

 with food or drink. To obtain the venom, a number of live frogs are 

 shaken vigorously in a drumlike container. Infuriated with this 

 treatment, they spit forth a dark venom. 



Poisonous commercial drugs are not known, generally. "I recall 

 an instance in Villarrica," said a non-Araucanian, "where, at a 

 Mapuche fiesta, a Chilean puma hunter showed Mapuche men strych- 

 nine that he used in his puma hunting; a Mapuche wanted to buy 

 some. Instead of selling him strychnine, the Chilean sold him alum. 

 Later the Chilean ate a meal, upon invitation, at the ruka of this 

 Mapuche and drank there chicha in which the Mapuche had put the 

 alum." 



In Coiiaripe it is believed that death will come upon a person who 

 lets himself be photographed, or "if he will not lose his life, he will 

 lose something, something like his spirit. If my mother will not allow 



