HARRINOTONl 



FOLKWAYS 391 



When they finish singing this song to him, he is laid face up and 

 is told to drmk water. The people one at a time pour water into a 

 pottery dish, dipping two fingers in, and then put a few drops at a 

 time into the dead person's mouth, each time representing different 

 springs of the mountains about the Pueblo. As the water is put 

 into the dead person's mouth, they name one spring each tune, 

 saying: "Drink from such and such a spring!" After all the people 

 who are present there have told him to drink the water, he is then 

 laid, face up, in the middle of the floor, and is left there according 

 to the custom of the Catholics. As the person lies during the night 

 m the middle of the floor, candles are lighted on both sides of where 

 he is lying. All of his relatives, men and women, that are there, 

 sing Christian hymns all through the night. 



And the ne.xt morning as he is taken out for burial, a bag of lunch 

 is tied on his side, of the food that he used to like. Then, before he 

 is carried from where he is lying, a man who is no km to him comes 

 in with cedar sprigs, and as the dead person is taken from where he 

 is lying, the man with the cedar sprigs pretends that he is sweeping 

 out death, singing a sacred song softl}' as he goes outside. From 

 there he goes southwest for about 2 miles to throw death away toward 

 where the sun sets. The people of the Pueblo believe that all the 

 people who die go southwest, toward where the sun sets, to live. 

 This ceremony is called the throwing away of death. The man 

 that threw death away is not supposed to go out very far from his 

 house, if he can help it, for four days. After the dead person has 

 been buried, all the people, with children and all who have been in 

 where the dead person was lying, are to go down to the river to 

 bathe. 



After that, those who wish may stay at the dead person's house 

 for the next four days. The dead person's nearest relative, wife or 

 husband, or if he has not either, his next nearest, sits at the place 

 where he died. From there he or she does not get up for four days. 

 They remain there for four days. In the evening, before they eat 

 their supper, they all pray together. And in the evening they do 

 not talk about the person who has just died, but of what has hap- 

 pened to them in the past. So they sit around and talk as if nothing 

 had happened. According to the belief of the people, the dead goes 

 out of the church on the evening of the fourth day, and goes south- 

 west toward where the sun sets, where the home of the dead is. 

 For four daj'^s after dying it is supposed to remain in the church. 

 And early on the fifth day, as the sun is rising, the man who threw 

 death away comes back in with good medicine. And the people 

 are sprinkled with this medicine by the man, he saying to them: 

 "My people, this dead person has already gone to the home of the 

 dead. So you must not think any more about it. You must all go 

 to your houses with good feeling. And then you must lead a good 



