CuHarprrr X XXIII 
DEATH AND MOURNING 
Daily lamentation of the dead (830). - 
Signs of mourning (S831). 
Burial: Site, purpose, nature (S832); posture of the corpse (8383); property 
buried or destroyed (834). 
Cremation (835); urn burial (836) ; mummification (837). 
Final destination of deceased’s bones or ashes (838). 
Final burial festivities: Disposal of surviving partner (8389); whip and its 
variations (840). 
Mortuary customs of the different nations: Arawak (841) ; the Makuari dance, 
for males (842) ; the name (848) ; whistles (844) ; whips (845) ; other objects 
(846) ; the Hau-yari dance, for females (847). Arawak stock, Atorai, Tar- 
jana (848). Warrau (849); Otomae (S850); Saliva (851); Saliva stock— 
Piaroa, Ature (852). Guahiba and Chiricoa (853); Betoya (854); Jirara, 
Ayrica (855). Carib, on Orinoco (856) ; Demerara (857); Surinam (S858) ; 
Cayenne (859) ; and in the islands (860). Carib stock, Akawai (861) ; Galibi 
(862) ; Makusi (male) (863); (female) (864) ; Oyana (865) ; Oyampi (866) ; 
Palicour (867). / 
830. There was a more or less prevalent custom among Guiana 
Indians—e. g., Otomac—of bewailing the dead the first thing in the 
morning, as a matter of daily routine (G,1, 167). [This daily lamen- 
tation of the dead is not unknown in other parts of South America; 
e. g., Nordenskiédld describes similar practices in the early morning 
among Indians of the Gran Chaco (NOR, 109, 179).] In other 
cases the lamentation was limited to the period intervening between 
death and final mortuary festivities, the varying expressions of 
sorrow depending upon the kinship and friendly relationship of 
the survivors. These expressions took the form of an address to, 
or questioning of, the deceased, even to the extreme point of shout- 
ing into the corpse’s ears certain eulogies, all more or less in a chant 
or wail, and ending with intoxication. “ These occasions,” says Ban- 
croft, “ presented a ludicrous spectacle of crying, singing, riot, and 
drunkenness; the old women being particularly noisy and petulant, 
and distinguishing themselves by singing loud songs in praise of the 
person deceased” (BA, 316). 
831. Among the most characteristic of the signs of mourning was 
the disuse of all ornaments and the cutting of the hair. When death 
removes any of their blood relations they [Arawak women of the Ber- 
bice and Demerara] drop their knickknacks and for a short while 
638 
