Note 55 — The Cycle of Life

Akop is another evil spirit, who has a head, long slimy arms and legs, but no body. He is always near the place of death, awaiting an opportunity to embrace the spouse of the deceased, and once let the living feel his cold embrace, death is sure to follow. So a barricade of pillows is erected at one corner of the room, and behind this the wife is compelled to remain during the three days the body is kept in the house, while throughout the night she sleeps under a fish net, in the meshes of which the long fingers of the spirit are sure to become entangled. Meanwhile, two or three old women sit near the corpse fanning it and wailing continually, at the same time keeping close watch to prevent the spirits from approaching the body or the widow (Plate XVI). From time to time the wife may creep over to the corpse, and wailing and caressing it beg the spirit not to depart.55 According to custom, she has already taken off her beads, has put on old garments and a bark head-band, and has placed over her head a Page 284large white blanket, which she wears until after the burial.56 Likewise all the relatives don old garments, and are barred from all work. The immediate family is under still stricter rules. Corn is their only food; they may not touch anything bloody, neither can they swing their arms as they walk. They are prohibited from mounting a horse, and under no circumstances are they allowed to leave the village or join in merry-making. Failure to obey these rules is followed by swift punishment, generally meted out by the spirit of the dead.57 Except for the wife, these restrictions are raised after the blood and oil ceremony (described in a later paragraph), but the widow continues in mourning until the Layog is celebrated, at the end of a year.