NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBERG 



89 



evil spirit. After the death the mother began to 

 wail terrifically (the Siriono always express deep 

 grief over the death of a child) and shortly there- 

 after emptied her breasts on the ground. About 

 an hour later, she scraped up the wet dirt and 

 put it into the basket where the child's excrement 

 was stored. 



The child was interred about 4 o'clock the same 

 afternoon. The parents were the only people who 

 went to the grave besides myself. The mother 

 carried the dead infant wrapped in the baby sling 

 which she had been accustomed to transport it in, 

 and it was buried in a shallow grave lined with 

 green boughs of motacu. A fire was made on 

 both sides of the grave before the parents returned 

 to the house. Both fasted for the rest of the day. 

 The following day they were scarified on the legs 

 and decorated with feathers. The father ate 

 on the day following the burial, but the mother 

 continued her fast until the second day, when she 

 resumed normal life, except for occasional periods 

 of wailing. She continued to empty her breasts, 

 however, to prevent them from drying up. 



The disposal of the corpse does not end contact 

 with the dead. After the flesh has rotted, relatives 

 of the deceased are obliged to return and bury the 

 bones. If they are not buried, the soul of the 

 deceased may return as an abacikwaia (evil spirit) 

 or a kurukwa (monster) and cause illness and 

 death to the surviving members of the family. 

 The skull, however, is not interred. It is either 

 carried back to the house, where it rests in a 

 special basket near (or under) the hammocks of 

 the immediate relatives of the deceased, or it is 

 abandoned at the site where the bones are buried. 

 In every Siriono hut one finds these skulls, which 

 have been saved as protective family heirlooms; 

 and in wandering around the Siriono country, one 

 not infrequently encounters old skulls that have 

 been thrown away. 



The skulls of the ancestors are preserved and 

 carried around for a while as a protection from 

 disease and death. They are also sometimes used 

 in curing. No set rule determines whether a 

 skull will be saved or thrown away. There is, 

 however, a tendency to throw away old skulls 

 as new deaths (and consequently new skulls) 

 appear in the family, and there is also a proneness 



to save only the skulls of people greatly loved, 

 such as young children, or of important personages 

 in the family, such as great hunters or chiefs. 

 Many mothers whom I knew in Tibaera were 

 carrying around the skulls of infants who had 

 died not long before. They all told me that 

 they were apt to be sick if they did not follow this 

 custom. In one family which I knew, the skull 

 of a chief called Embutandu (Father-of-Bearded- 

 one), had been carried around by one of his 

 daughters for many years. Whenever any mem- 

 ber of her family was ill, this skull was employed 

 to effect a cure. On one occasion I walked into 

 the house and found Nyeka, a son-in-law of the 

 deceased Embutandu, "sick in the chest." He 

 told me that he had an abacikwaia (evil spirit) in 

 his chest which was causing him great pain. I 

 asked him how he was going to cure his ailment. 

 He picked up the skull of Embutandu, rubbed it 

 across his chest for a few minutes, and then 

 replied, "Tomorrow, I will not be sick." 



When skulls are employed in curing, no magical 

 formulas are recited. Moreover, they are given 

 no special treatment and care apart from being 

 kept in a basket of their own. They are not 

 worshiped, for example, and no offerings are made 

 to them. On occasions, however, I have seen them 

 covered with uruku to make them more effective 

 in curing. 



With respect to the cult of the dead, I was told 

 by my companion Silva, who had lived for many 

 years among the Indians at Casarabe and Chiqui- 

 guani, of another custom which he said prevails 

 among the Siriono. He told me that when a 

 man has had a long streak of ill luck in hunting 

 he may repair to the spot where the bones of an 

 ancestor — one who had been a great hunter — 

 are buried and ask him to change his luck and to 

 tell him wdiere to go in quest ol game. Upon 

 inquiring of informants as to whether such a 

 custom was practiced, I was answered in the 

 negative by most of them. A few, however, 

 told me that others may have followed such a 

 practice, but that they themselves had never done 

 so. I might add that during all of my residence 

 among the Siriono — and the hunting was fre- 

 quently bad — I never observed an Indian carry 

 out such a rite. 



