STEVENSON] MORTUARY CUSTOMS. 143 



lime and inasnesia. The main portion consists of a mixture of a 

 hydrous carbonate of copper (presumably malachite) with a ferrugin- 

 ous sand. The copper mineral dissolves readily in dilute acids and, in 

 addition to the copper, contains traces of iron and of phosphoric acid. 

 I'robably an impure malachite pulverized." 



Though the woman is considered an invalid and exemjit from all 

 household duties until the tenth morning after childbirth, she passes 

 in and out of the house after the fourth morning and occupies herself 

 sewing, not more than half of her time being spent in a reclining posi- 

 tion. 



The greatest attention was shown this woman and her child by her 

 father, mother, and husband, the two men performing the most menial 

 services for her and frequently waiting upon the infant. 



MORTUARY BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS. 



It was stated in a previous chapter that the Sia do not believe in a 

 return of the spirits of their dead when they have once entered Sliipapo. 

 There was once, however, an exception to this. The story is here given 

 in the theurgist's own words : 



"When the years were new and this village had been built perhaps 

 tiiree years, all the spirits of our dead came here for a great feast. 

 They had bodies such as they had before death ; wives recognized hus- 

 bands, husbands wives, chiklren parents, and parents children. Just 

 after sundown the spirits began arriving, only a few passing over the 

 road by daylight, but after dark they came in great crowds and re- 

 mained until near dawn. They tarried but one night; husbands and 

 wives did not sleep together ; had they done so the living would have 

 surely died. When the hour of separation came there was much weep- 

 ing, not only among the living but the dead. The living insisted upon 

 going with the dead, but the dead declared they must wait; that they 

 could not ))ass through the entrance to the other world; they must first 

 die or grow old and again become little children to be able to pass 

 through the door of the world for the departed. It was then that the 

 Sia first learned all about their future home. They learned that the 

 fields were vast, the pastures beautiful, the mountains high, the lakes 

 and rivers clear like crystals, ajid the wheat and cornfields floui'ishing. 

 During tlie day the spirits sleep, and at night they work industriously 

 in the fields. The moon is father to the dead as the sun is fatlier to 

 the living; the de.id resting when the sun travels, for at this time they 

 see nothing; it is when the sun returns to his home at night that the 

 departed spirits work and pass about in their world below. The home 

 of the departed spirits is in the world first inhabited by the Sia." 



It is the aim of the Sia to first reach the intermediate state at the 

 time the body ceases to develop and then return gradually back to the 

 first condition of infancy ; at such period one does not die, but sleeps 



