Dying to Order.

Hastings Standard, Issue 155, 26 October 1896, Page 4

Dying to Order.

Among the Tatai/omans —the inhabitants of the extreme south of South America, and the tallest nation in the world it is the custom for the children to kill their father and mother. Sometimes the aged people make up lle ir minds that it is time to die; sometimes it is the children who giv not !<•••• to their parents that they are i burden to them. In either case, a decision having been arrived at, fri. nd-; and relatives are invit. d to a eTe.tt feast, during the course of which the date of the funer,"l is discussed I and fixed. A i'atagoniau funeral does not piY-aipi o' ■ a collin and beaiv-rs. On the contrary, they are strictly 1111-nK'e-,sary adjnnets, as the '• corpse " walks to the place of burial. Arrived at tiie cvniefry, the mourners commence their lame'.iiations, wiiich continues while a, shallow grave, sometime,; less than four feet deep, is being dug. The grave being finished, the: chiidreii and friends say an affectionate good-bye, and the eldest son immediately steps forward and buries his parent alive. Children would not think of deputing this horrible task to anyone el ;e, for to do so would he to cast a slur on their filial love, a scmiment they are very proud of possessing. The Patagonian believe- in a future state, and that he will ascend to L'aradNo at once after death. This accounts for the invariably cheerful way in which the selected people meet death, forty is the ago at which it is generally considered desirable for parents to be put away, hutany sign of unhealthiness involves an earlier decease.