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BURIAL
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burnt together with various articles of personal property which might be wanted in the other world. In many cases this privilege was allowed to slaves destined for sacrifice, and they were permitted to burn their small effects before they mounted the sacrificial stone. The ashes were collected and placed in a vase or stone coffer, together with a small jewel (the lip-plug of the deceased) to serve as a "heart," and buried. Offerings were made on the grave after twenty days' interval, and again after eighty days. These were repeated on the annual feast of the dead for four years, after which the soul was supposed to have completed its journey. The grave, at any rate in the case of individuals of importance, was a vault lined with stone and lime. The obsequies of the king followed the same lines, but were more elaborate, and certain of his personal slaves and wives were killed to accompany him. Motolinia states that in the case of men of high rank, all the clothing which they had worn in life was buried with them. Both the "Anonymous Conqueror" and Francisco de Bologna speak of bodies being placed in the vault seated on a chair, and it is possible that the ashes were occasionally made up into a mummy-pack as among the Tarascans. However, simple inhumation was certainly practised by the Aztec, though it was usually reserved for those whose manner of death entitled them to a place in the terrestrial paradise Tlalocan. In the case of a merchant dying while away from home on a trading expedition, a figure was made by his relations at home and burnt with due ceremony. If he had been killed by a hostile people, the cremation took place in a temple-court, but if he had fallen a victim to disease, in front of his house. Merchants of the Pochteca guild of Tlaltelolco received special treatment; the body was swathed in paper, the face decorated with the red and black paint of the gladiatorial sacrifice, ornaments, including the lip-plug, were added,