The mekaro are the souls of the dead, the collective of karo, the ghost-soul that each living person carries and that departs the body at death to travel to the village of the dead. They form the principal category of Canela supernatural being. The dead are not distant: they may appear to living kin, frighten or sicken them, or draw a grieving relative after them, and the boundary between the living village and the settlement of the dead is one that shamans in particular can cross. A living person's charged encounter with the mekaro is the classic source of shamanic power, the ability to see souls, diagnose, and cure. Canela mortuary practice and much of its ritual caution are organised around keeping the mekaro appeased and at a proper remove.