BURIAL. RELIGION. 431 



The death of a native is attended with peculiar ceremonies. 

 The flesh having been as much as possible stripped from the 

 bones, they are hung " on high, upon canes or twigs woven 

 together, to dry and whiten with the sun and rain." One of 

 the most distinguished women is chosen to perform the dis- 

 gusting office of making the skeleton, and during the process 

 "the Indians, covered with long mantles of skins, and their 

 faces blackened by 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 Yalichus 



or evil beings The horses of the dead are killed that 



he may have wherewithal to ride upon in the Alhue Mapu, 

 or Country of the Dead.' ' In about a year the bones are 

 "packed together in a hide and placed upon one of the 

 deceased's favorite horses, kept alive for that purpose/' and 

 in this manner the natives bear the relics, sometimes to a very 

 great distance, until they arrive at the proper burial place, 

 where the ancestors of the dead man are lying. The bones 

 are arranged in their proper positions, and fastened by 

 string. The skeleton is then placed, with others, in a square 

 pit, clothed in the best robes, and adorned with beads, fea- 

 thers, etc. The arms of the deceased are buried with him, 

 and round the grave are ranged several dead horses, raised 

 on their feet, and supported with sticks.* Sometimes a 

 cairn of stones is raised over the grave. f 



Falkner regarded the Patagonians as Polytheists, but 

 we do not know much about their religion. According 

 to the missionaries, neither the Patagonians nor the Arau- 

 canians had any ideas of prayer, or " any vestige of religious 

 worship." J 



* Falkner's Patagonia, pp. 118, 119. f Fitzroy, vol. ii., p. 158. 



J The Voice of Pity, vol. ii., pp. 37, 95. 



