WHOLE VOL. ARAUCANIAN CHILD LIFE — HILGER 345 



In the early days the body was wrapped in a hide after death ; in 

 more recent times, in a homewoven blanket ; at present, it is dressed 

 in the person's own clothes. While waiting for burial, formerly, the 

 body rested on a platform of poles built for the purpose. Just before 

 burial it was placed between the halves of a hollo wed-out tree-trunk 

 section, known as a wampu. Today a body rests on the platform used 

 as a bed, and is buried in a coffin. 



Formerly, the day of burial depended on the status of the person : 

 commoners were kept one or two days after death ; important persons, 

 three or four days. The body of a cacique was sometimes kept five 

 or six days, depending on the time when people from all surrounding 

 areas, expected for the burial, had arrived. 



Whether depositing a corpse in a cave dates back to early days 

 was not known to informants. **I have seen human bones in many 

 caves," said an old informant. "When I was young I heard old people 

 say that whenever the army was chasing our people there was no 

 time to bury the dead in graves ; that a corpse was wrapped in a hide 

 at such times and laid into a cave; that never before that time were 

 people laid in caves." Saiko had seen the remains of burials in caves 

 in many places, and also on rock shelves under rock shelters. Skele- 

 tons found in caves are in supine position, as are those found in burials 

 everywhere, he noted. He had been present at excavations, including 

 those of Araucanian graves, in many areas of the Araucanian country, 

 and had himself dug sites of old Indian burial places. In the oldest 

 burials, he observed, stones are found around, under, and above the 

 skeletons ; in later burials skeletons are found in wampu. He had 

 seen no urn burials, nor any in which the body was in flexed position. 

 All burials, he said, faced the rising sun. Burials today, with few 

 exceptions, are in cemeteries. 



Formerly, food, the deceased person's clothing, and all things con- 

 sidered his personal belongings were put into the wampu and buried 

 with the body. "Always a woman's spindle, her silver ornaments, 

 the ollas in which she stored her personal things, and her clothes," 

 were buried with her, noted a 70-year-old woman. A listening-in 

 woman added, "If a man had a trutruka, it was buried with him ; and 

 the kultrur) was buried with the machi to whom it belonged." A man's 

 silver-ornamented bridle and saddle were placed on his favorite horse, 

 the horse shot at the place of burial, and both the rider's gear and 

 horse were buried with the man. If the man owned other silver things, 

 these too were buried with him. No food was brought to the place of 

 burial after interment. Today the clothes of the deceased are buried 

 in a place so far from the dwelling that the place cannot be seen. 



