appointed burial-grounds, where the surface was cleared of grass, and cut in the form of a spear-shield. Some seen by the first explorers occupied a considerable space, and were intersected by neatly-made walks, running in graceful curves; others consisted of well-constructed huts, thatched and secured with a net; and a few buried their dead in graves not unlike those in a modern cemetery.
The bodies of young children and persons killed by accident were usually placed in a hollow tree. The space was cleared of rotten wood and well swept, the bottom was lined with leaves, and the whole was covered with a piece of bark. And sometimes a rude coffin was made by stripping a sapling of its bark.
The manner in which bodies were burnt is fully described in this work. It will be observed that the pile is lighted, not by a priest, but by one of the women.
The Narrinyeri dry the bodies of the dead, and during the process they paint them with grease and red-ochre. They preserve the hair, which is spun into a cord, and the cord is wound round the head of some fighting-man. It gives him, they say, clearness of sight and renders him more active.
When the body is dry, it is wrapped in rugs or mats, and carried from place to place for several months, and is then placed on a platform of sticks. The skull, it is said, is used as a drinking vessel.
The natives in some parts of Queensland, when they burn the bodies, keep and carry about with them the ashes of their dead.
There is evidently a strong belief generally in the virtues communicated by rubbing the body with the fat of a dead man, or with portions of his singed beard, or by eating pieces of his fat or skin. It is thought that his strength and courage will be acquired by those who perform these ceremonies.
The blacks exhibit the greatest sorrow when one of their number is sick and near death. It is impossible for any one to stand by and see a native breathe his last without feeling the deepest compassion for those who surround the death bed. Both men and women exhibit acute anguish; they mourn the departed, and with such gestures and accents as betray the misery that is in their hearts. Some tear the flesh from the fingers until blood comes, others cut their cheeks with shells and chips, and many burn themselves with fire-sticks, all the while scattering hot ashes on their heads and on their bodies until the mutilations are dreadful to behold. And the grief of the friends of the departed is naturally increased when they know that his death was not due to natural causes, but to the vile arts of some sorcerer dwelling amongst wild blackfellows.
A sudden death is often the cause of fighting amongst men of the bereaved tribe. They will exhibit their grief by spearing each other; and men have been killed at such times. One case of this kind occurred on the River Darling. A man died suddenly of heart disease, and the men commenced to quarrel over his grave. The cause of the quarrel was not ascertained, but the results were fatal. One young man was killed, and he was buried in the very grave around which all had assembled for the purpose of paying respect to their dead relative.
The Murray blacks, Mr. Bulmer informs me, never keep the dead long. They are generally buried on the day of their death, or, at latest, the next day. In
