A Bororo Blind Woman.
The apparition of the souls before their relatives was, of course, merely a clumsily arranged trick of the barihs. This is how it was done. They made a circle of branches of trees—in order to keep the audience at a distance—and then erected a large wooden gate, so arranged that when the souls appeared it fell down in order to give them free passage. The souls—generally not more than two together—upon being called by the barih, entered the ring with their faces covered and hopping with a special step of their own. They did not respond to prayers or tears, and kept on twirling about within the ring. The body was that of a woman, wearing from the waist down a gown of palm leaves. The face was covered by a mask of vegetable fibre which allowed its owner to see and not be seen. Upon the head was worn a cap of wax in which were stuck a great number of arrows, so that it looked just like the back of a disturbed porcupine.
Naturally those "souls" were merely special girls dressed up for the occasion. But credulous Bororo women believed they were actually seeing the souls of their dead relatives. They worked themselves into a great state of excitement.
The same implement which was employed by the Bororos to reproduce the sound of the aigi or ajie (hippopotamus)—a board some ten inches long and three inches wide attached to a string and revolved from a long pole—was also used by them to announce the departure of souls from this world to the next. The women were ordered to cover their faces or hide altogether inside their huts when these noises were produced. Should one be curious enough to inquire into their origin and look, she was generally condemned to death—frequently by starvation. The Bacururu—or the Coroado Indians—believed that, after such an indiscretion, nothing could save the life of a woman.
Before starting on a hunting or fishing expedition prayers were offered to the souls of the departed, so that they might not interfere with the success of the expedition, and if possible help instead.
The funeral rites of the Bororos were singular. On the death of a man, a chorus of moans began and tears were shed in profusion, while some one sang for several days the praises of the defunct in a melancholy monotone. The body was covered for two entire days, during which all articles that belonged to the deceased, such as bow and arrows, pots, and musical instruments, were smashed or destroyed. The débris was stored behind a screen in the hut, where subsequently was also kept the hearse in which the body was conveyed to the burial spot. The body, wrapped in a palm-leaf mat, was then interred in a shallow oval grave just outside his hut. A wooden beam was placed directly over the body, and then the hollow was covered over with some six or eight inches of earth. A few branches of trees and some thorns were thrown over it to indicate the spot.
For twenty days in the evening and night moans resounded through the air. More tears were shed by the relatives and by the barih, who frequently proceeded to the grave to pour water on it. On the twentieth day, while some one set at play the awe-inspiring revolving board, others proceeded to exhume the body—by then in a state of absolute decomposition. The remains were taken to the stream and the bones cleaned with great care. The skull was placed within two inverted hemispherical baskets, whereas all the other bones of the body were heaped into a third concave basket of a larger size.