91 



toiong the Romans ; while another woman, who 

 walks behind, strews ashes in the road, to pre- 

 vent the soul from returning to its late abode. 

 On arriving at the place of burial, the corpse is 

 laid upon the surface of the ground, and sur- 

 rounded, if a man, with his arms, if a woman, 

 with female implements, and with a great quan- 

 tity of provisions, and with vessels filled with 

 (;hica and with wiife, which, according to their 

 opinions, are necessary to subsist them during 

 their passage to ^another world. They some- 

 times even kill a horse and inter it in the same 

 ground. After these ceremonies they take leave 

 with many tears of the deceased, wishing him a 

 prosperous journey, and cover the corpse with 

 earth and stones placed in a pyramidal form, 

 upon which they pour a great quantity of chica. 

 The similarity between these funeral rites and 

 those practised by the ancients must be obvious 

 to those acquainted with the customs of the^' 

 latter. 



Immediately after the relations have quitted 

 the deceased, an old woman, called Tempulcague, 

 pomes, as the Araucanians believe, in the shape 

 of a whale, to transport him to the Elysian fields ; 

 but before his arrival there, he is obliged to pay 

 a toll for passing a very narrow strait to another 

 malicious old woman who guards it, and who, 

 on failure, deprives the passenger of an eye. 

 This fable resembles much that of the ferryman 



