156 



BURIAL — CEREMONIES. 



trees, upon which earth is laid. His favourite horse is after^ 

 wards killed. It is held at the grave while a man knocks it on 

 the head with one of the balls of the deceased. When dead, it 

 is skinned and stuffed, then, supported by sticks (or set up) 

 upon its legs, with the head propped up, as if looking at the 

 grave. Sometimes more horses than one are killed. At the 

 funeral of a cacique four horses are sacrificed, and one is set up 

 at each corner of the burial place. The clothes and other 

 effects belonp'ing: to the deceased are burned : and to finish 

 all, a feast is made of the horses' flesh. 



But there are also other modes of disposing of dead bodies : 

 and as I am certain that at least two of them are practised by 

 the Patagonians of the present day, and we are assured by 

 Falkner that other methods, one of which was carrying them 

 into the desert by the sea-coast, were customary in his time, 1 

 shall here repeat what he says on the subject (p. 118). 



" The burial of the dead and the superstitious reverence 

 paid to their memory, are attended with great ceremony. When 

 an Indian dies, one of the most distinguished women among 

 them is immediately chosen to make a skeleton of his body ; 

 which is done by cutting out the entrails, which they burn to 

 ashes, dissecting the flesh from the bones as clean as possible, 

 and then burying them under ground till the remaining flesh 

 is entirely rotted off, or till they are removed (which must be 

 within a year after the interment, but is sometimes within two 

 months) to the proper burial-place of their ancestors. 



" This custom is strictly observed by the Molu-che, Taluhet, 

 and Diuihet,* but the Chechehet and Tehuelhet, or Patago- 

 nians, place the bones on high, upon canes or twigs woven 

 together, to dry and whiten with the sun and rain. 



" During the time that the ceremony of making the skeleton 

 lasts, the Indians, covered with long mantles of skins, and 

 their faces blackened with soot, walk round the tent, with long 

 poles or lances in their hands, singing in a mournful tone of 

 voice, and striking the ground, to frighten away the Valichus, 



* The Taluhet, Chechehet, and Diuihet, were tribes of Puel-che. 



