WHOLE VOL, ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 159 



you to photograph her while she sets up her loom, I shall set it up 

 and let you photograph me. And I shall also prepare the warp and 

 do a little weaving for you, so that you can get photographs with a 

 weaver on them. My mother believes that if she is photographed she 

 will have to die." Five young men talked with humor of having to 

 die soon, since a picture had been taken of them. 



DEATH 



When it is evident that a person is dying, relatives are notified — 

 that is, all those who bear the same name as his, or are of the same 

 lineage. They stay with the bereaved family, and later near the dead 

 person's remains, until the burial, except for such time as is needed 

 to care for animals at home. During the days of waiting for death 

 a cow or sheep belonging to the dying person is slaughtered by rela- 

 tives and consumed ; if necessary, a second one is slaughtered for 

 the wake. 



The dying person — man, woman, or child — is clothed in his best 

 clothes. If his family adheres strictly to the old customs, a band will 

 be put over the forehead of a man and tied in a knot on the side of his 

 head, "like men formerly wore them." A woman's hair is held in posi- 

 tion by means of her silver ornaments ; her breast ornaments and 

 stickpins are also worn. Feet are bare, unless the dying person has a 

 pair of shoes. "I was present when a man dressed his dying wife in 

 her jacket and skirt," said a non-Araucanian herbalist. "The man 

 wanted to know from me whether he should put the women's best 

 shoes on her or an older pair. I suggested the older pair, and that 

 someone else might wear out the better pair. Just then the woman's 

 mother came nearby and the man consequently put the best shoes on 

 his wife." No facial or skin decorations were used. 



During the present study a non-Araucanian herbalist was present at 

 the death of a 17-year-old youth in Alepue. What she then observed, 

 she was later told, was traditional : When she arrived at the ruka, the 

 young man, then dying, lay with feet toward the entrance of the ruka, 

 which was also toward the fireplace. The entrance was the one gener- 

 ally used ; on previous visits she had found the young man lying with 

 feet toward the side entrance. The following relatives (the young 

 man's father was deceased) were squatted in the ruka: the mother, 

 maternal uncle and aunt, paternal uncle and granduncle. A neighbor- 

 ing man, his wife, and their young son were also present. The 

 mother was at the left, near the head of her dying son ; the herbalist 

 was directed to sit in the corresponding place to the right at his head, 



