l60 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, I33 



a place, it appeared, reserved for her. The other women were squatted 

 in a row on the man's left; his brothers (he had no sisters) were in a 

 row at his right ; the other men and the boy were on their haunches 

 in a semicircle between the fireplace and the main entrance. The dying 

 youth, dressed in shirt, sleeveless sweater, and pants, but barefoot, lay 

 on the wool side of a sheep pelt on the ground ; his head rested on a 

 roll made of a black shawl. Shortly before he became unconscious — 

 he lost consciousness about 15 minutes before he died — the paternal 

 uncle and one of the other men put shoes on him. Immediately follow- 

 ing death, the mother's sister secured the jaw in normal position by 

 tying a cloth about it, and the men then changed the clothes he was 

 wearing to his best ones, which were lying on a log nearby. (Gener- 

 ally, the herbalist noted, a dying person is first completely stripped of 

 all clothes and then clothed in his best ones before he loses conscious- 

 ness.) His face was then covered with a piece of cloth. At this point 

 the informant set out for home. She was certain that the usual things 

 were done next : the body was laid on a low platform made by resting 

 planks on log sections and covering them with sheep pelts or a blanket 

 and then covering the body with a blanket also. Neither face nor 

 body was again uncovered. 



While the young man was still conscious, the herbalist noted, per- 

 sons present talked about his wake. Among other things, one said, 

 "We do not have enough sugar for yerba mate ; we shall have to send 

 someone to Valdivia for some [an all-day trip]. If he dies tonight, 

 we shall need it by tomorrow." Another asked, "Who will make the 

 coffin for him?" (The man who generally made the coffin had gone 

 to Villarrica.) 



THE WAKE AND BURIAL 



According to Cooper's sources (1946, pp. 734-735) rites and ob- 

 servances connected with death and mourning differed somewhat ac- 

 cording to period and region and to rank, status, sex, and age of the 

 deceased. Chief characteristics were the following: Repeated cere- 

 monial wailing ; tearing out of hair by females and sometimes rending 

 of clothing ; circling the corpse afoot or on horseback with great 

 clamor to honor the deceased (awn or awiin rite), and also, it appears, 

 to drive away evil spirits and prevent sorcerers from capturing for 

 evil purposes the soul of the deceased ; calling in the shaman to dis- 

 cover, through examination of blood specimens or the gall bladder of 

 the dead person, the human or supernatural agent that caused the 

 death ; extracting the viscera and smoking the body on a frame with 

 a fire of canelo wood which gives off dense fumes ; keeping the body 



