rings in the
boundless plains to the south of the Rio Plata.

The Moluches and Pampas bury in large square pits about six feet deep,
the bones being first accurately put into their proper places and tied
together, clothed in the best robes of the deceased, and ornamented with
beads and feathers, all of which are cleaned or changed once a-year.
These skeletons are placed in a sitting posture in a row, with all the
weapons and other valuables belong to each laid beside him. The pit is
then covered over with beams or twigs, on which the earth is spread. An
old matron of each tribe is appointed to the care of these sepulchres,
who has to open them once a-year, to clean and new clothe the skeletons,
for which service she is held in great estimation. The bodies of the
slain horses are placed round the sepulchre, raised on their feet and
supported by stakes. These sepulchres are generally at a small distance
from the ordinary habitations of the tribe. Every year they pour upon
them some bowls of their first made _chica,_ or fermented liquor, and
drink to the happiness of the dead. The Tehuelhets and other southern
tribes carry their dead to a great distance from their ordinary
dwellings, into the desert near the sea-coast, where they arrange them
above ground surrounded by their horses. It is probable that only those
Indians who carry their dead to considerable distances reduce them to
skeletons, from the following circumstance. In the voyage of discovery
made in 1746 in the St Antonio from Buenos Ayres to the Straits of
Magellan, the Jesuits who accompanied the expedition found one of these
tents or houses of the dead. On one side six banners of cloth of various
colours, each about half a yard square, were set up on high poles fixed
in the ground; and on the other side five dead horses stuffed with straw
and supported, on stakes. Within the house, there were two _ponchos_
extended, on which lay the bodies of two men and a woman, having the
flesh and hair still remaining. On the top of the house was another
_poncho,_ rolled up and tied with a coloured woolen band, in which a
pole was fixed, from which eight tassels of wool were suspended.

Widows are obliged to observe a long and rigorous mourning. During a
whole year after the death of their husbands, they must keep themselves
secluded in the tents, never going out except on the most necessary
avocations, and having no communication with any one. In all this time,
they must