MORTUARY SACRIFICES 



291* 



Flo. 41 — Food for tlie long journey. 



property of the deceased. Finally the ])elicaii-pelt bedding i.s folded 



o\er the body, and two turtle-shells are laid over all as a kind of coffin, 



when the grave is carefully filled, and the ground so smoothed as to leave 



no mark of the burial. During subseiiuent hours the stones for the 



cairn or the cholla-joiuts and other brambles for the brush heaj) are 



piled over the spot, 



while the scato- 



lihagic shells are 



added at intervals 



apparently for 



weeks or months 



and perhaps for 



years after the 



burial. 



The mortuary 

 food is carefully se- 

 lected for appropri- 

 ate qualities (i. e., 

 for "strength"' in 

 the notion of the 

 mourners). It com- 

 prises portions of 

 turtle-flippers, and, if i)racticable, a chunk of charred plastron— the food 

 substance especially associated with long and hard journeys — with a few 

 fresh mollusks, and, judging from a single good example as well as from 

 analogy, one or two scatophagic shells. The remains of a funerary 

 feast are illustrated iu figures 41 and 42, the latter being the scato[ihagic 



receptacle utilized apparently 

 in the absence of the custom- 

 ary Noah's ark. It may be 

 significant that this shell is 

 perforated at the apex, evi- 

 dently by long wave-wear 

 before utilization, and that 

 the accompanying olla bears 

 marks of having been broken, 

 then repaired, and afterward 

 perforated, as illustrated iu 

 the photo- mechanical repro- 

 duction (figure 39); for these 

 features perhaps express that idea of "killing" mortuary sacrifices, 

 ostensibly to fit them to the condition of the deceased, though really 

 (in subconscious practicality) to protect the sepulcher from predation.' 



' "In all stages of development belief runs a close race against cupidity, and is sometimes distanced; 

 fio the sages learn that even a buried Tveapon may ]_m a source of contention, which they thencefor- 

 ward forestall hy breaking or burning it."' (Primitive Trephining in Peru; Sixteenth Ann. Kep., 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, 1897, p. 22.) 



Fig. 42 — Mortuary cup. 



