WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 163 



If a trolof is used as a cofifin, the preliminaries to burial are usually 

 traditional ones. The body is placed in one of the halves, and food 

 is placed in the trolof about the head, and clothes and such personal 

 belongings as a man's silver saddle ornaments are placed about the 

 rest of the body. Doing this is called rokintun (making provisions for 

 a journey). "If it is a schoolboy we are burying, we put his books 

 and pencils with him and anything else that was his. Now, as for- 

 merly, we bury with the body tortillas, toasted wheat, a little container 

 with mudai, bread, meat, a small plate, and always some of the favorite 

 foods of the dead person, possibly a watermelon. Formerly, at the 

 grave, just before burial, the trolof was opened and all who had 

 slaughtered an animal during the wake placed a small piece of kidney 

 or liver near the body. We put the food there because the spirit of 

 the departed wants to eat, too. No, the spirit of the food does not go 

 to where the spirit of the person is, nor do we bring food to the grave 

 after the burial, like you say the Chippewa of your country do, and 

 most certainly we did not put food on the outside of the coffin. That 

 would have been a stupid thing to do." Two little girls present at the 

 interview volunteered: "Yes, and they do that today; they put some 

 water and chiclia in, too, sometimes." To which the informant re- 

 sponded : "Well, yes, these children saw that done a year ago for a 

 young man, but it was done only because his mother was an old-timer 

 and believed strictly in the old ways, and wanted it done." 



This done the other half of the trolof is placed in position and the 

 two halves securely bound together with vine. 



As recently as 1939, men on horseback rode around the outside of 

 the ruka before the body was removed, "so that the spirit will leave 

 the house joyfully. It was done in this area [Cofiaripe] as long as the 

 old men lived ; all of our old men are dead now, and we shall probably 

 no longer do it." The non-Araucanian teacher who attended the wake 

 of the schoolboy (previously recounted) was advised on the day of 

 the funeral, by one of those present, to walk to the cemetery while they 

 prepared to bring the boy's body. "I did so," she said. "Soon I heard 

 something going on at the ruka. I looked back and saw men on horse- 

 back galloping around it. Later they told me that they had carried out 

 an old custom." 



Formerly, the trolof was dragged to the place of burial by men; 

 at the present time, a pair of oxen draws it. In the instance of the 

 12-year-old boy, the two halves of the trolof were borne to the ceme- 

 tery on an oxcart drawn by a pair of oxen, while men followed carry- 

 ing the body on a ladderlike frame on their shoulders, and relatives 

 followed these men. Sometimes today, and always formerly, men on 



