A very elaborate third function, given by a widow, was described to me as follows:  There were five patios.  On one, for the dead, was erected one large cross and two small ones, and three gourds with tesvino and a basket with uncooked meat were placed near by.  A fire was lighted, and one man had to watch here.  On another patio one cross was raised, and a branch from a pine-tree placed next to it.  Here, too, a jar with tesvino and a basket with uncooked meat were deposited, and one man and two women kept watch, but no ceremonies were performed.  A third patio was for the hikuli cult, where the shaman rasped and sang.  On the fourth patio, yumari was danced, and one large cross and two smaller ones had been erected.  Finally, on the fifth patio four torches of resinous pinewood, each a yard high, were placed at the four cardinal points.  A peculiar feature was that one man alone danced here between these four torches, cutting with his knife three times through each flame as he danced.  This he did in reprises.

According to the names which the Tarahumares apply to the three functions for the dead, the main idea of the first is to give food; of the second, to replenish the first supply; and of the third to give drink.  The three feasts are on an increasing scale of elaborateness, the first being comparatively insignificant.  Each generally lasts one day and one night, and begins at the hour at which the dead breathed his last.  There is always a special patio prepared for the dead, and another one for the hikuli cult, besides the ordinary dancing-place, and much howling and singing goes on, especially at the last.

At the feasts, the shaman steeps herbs in water and Sprinkles this medicine over the people.  Hikuli dancing and singing always play a prominent part at all the festivities, for the plant is thought to be very powerful in running off the dead, chasing them to the end of the world, where they join the other dead.  Yumari is danced at intervals and much tesvino is used, and at all feasts the survivors drink with the dead.

There are three feasts for a mall, and four for a woman.  She cannot run so fast, and it is therefore harder to chase her off.  Not until the last function has been made will a widower or a widow marry again, being more afraid of the dead than are other relatives.

After the death of a person, anyone who rendered him any service, as, for instance, watching his cattle for a week, claims something of what the dead left.  He is satisfied, however, with a girdle or the like.

Once I was present at the burial-feast for a man who had hanged himself a fortnight before, while under the influence of liquor and angry over some property out of which he considered himself cheated.  He had changed into a lion.  Two men and two women carried food and tesvino; the wife did not go with them, as the deceased had died alone, and she was afraid of being carried off by him.  His father-in-law