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 abstain from eating the flesh of horses, cows, ostriches, or guanacos, must never wash their faces which are constantly smeared with soot, and any breach of chastity during this year of mourning is punished with the death of both parties by the relations of the husband.

The office of ya, or chief, is hereditary, and all the sons of a ya may be chiefs likewise if they can procure followers; but the dignity is of so little consequence that nobody almost covets the office.  To him belongs the office of protecting his followers, of composing differences, and of delivering up any offender who is to be capitally punished; in all which, cases his will is the sole law.  These petty despots are prone to bribery, and will readily sacrifice their vassals and even their kindred for a good bribe.  They are esteemed in proportion to their eloquence, and any chief who is not himself eloquent employs an orator to harangue the tribe in his place.  When two or more tribes form an alliance