aabb.] ^^'-' [Aug. 20, 



in part unintelligible to the uninitiated. At the end of each stanza was 

 a chorus, where the priests, who during the stanza kept time with their 

 rattles, now gave a peculiar twirl, and the lay singers joined in the chorus. 



As the song approached its end, the leader was furnished with a 

 big goui'd of steaming chocolate, holding about a quart. As he finished, 

 landing the dear departed safe beyond further troubles, he announced it 

 with a most unearthly yell, in which all hands joined ; he at the same 

 time turning the chocolate over the tire, totally extinguishing it. The 

 party at once arose and for a minute or two all was bustle and confusion 

 of preparation. 



A person, whose office it is to handle the dead, endeavored to lower the 

 bundle but it was a little out of his reach. Nobody else could touch it, 

 for fear of defiling himself. To lend a hand would have cost an Indian 

 three days of purification. I drew my long knife, which all learn to carry 

 in this country, as an actual necessity ; and with a couple of blows cut 

 the fastenings and brought the little cane rack, bundle of bones and all, 

 tumbling into the outstretched arms of the official, with much more haste 

 than solemnity. Nobody seemed shocked, and being a foreigner, and 

 withal a medicine man, who had made cures where their best doctors had 

 failed, I was of course impregnable to hu-ku-rii,' . The aforesaid official 

 now lashed the package to its stick, and two long slender strings of loose- 

 ly twisted cotton were tied to the head of the package. 



Santiago had had three wives. One of them had re-married to his suc- 

 cessor ; but there were two remaining in widowhood. A procession was 

 formed. First came the priests with their rattles. Next the chorus 

 singers with their drums. Next the corpse, borne by two men, and pre- 

 ceded by the two widows, each holding the end of one of the cotton 

 strings, leading the dead, as it were, to his final i-esting-plaoe. Next 

 ourselves, as the most distinguished persons present, and escorted by the 

 two chiefs. Behind us came the older men, and following them the usual 

 rag, tag, and bob-tail of young men, women, boys, and persons of no ac- 

 count generally. Some of the boys however, true to boy nature, were 

 as usual irrepressible, and instead of keeping decorously in place, skir- 

 mished ahead, and on the flanks of the procession, mounting stumps, 

 logs, or other commanding points to take in the general effect of the 

 pageant. As the procession filed out of the house, some old chicha jars 

 were carried out and ostentatiously broken ; but I observed that nothing 

 of real value was destroyed. As soon as the line got fairly viuder way, the 

 priests struck up another song which was kept up until the procession 

 halted. 



Everybody had been on so long a debauch that it was decided to take 

 a rest of three or four days before the party started off. But it was 

 necessary that the bones should be removed from the house. A tempo- 

 rary ranch had therefore been built a few hundred yards distant ; and to 

 this the remains were carried and deposited until the bearers were in a 

 fit condition to proceed. 



