west coast differed from those on the east, in some of their customs. The former did not mark their bodies with the same regularity as the latter: the scars upon those of the west coast appeared to have proceeded from irregular surgical cuts, and were principally upon the chest, which is very liable to be affected by inflammation, that often speedily issues in death. A large proportion of these people died from this cause, in the course of the late inclement season.
Lately, several of these people were sick upon the West Hunter or Barren Island, and one of the women died. The men formed a pile of logs, and at sunset, placed the body of the woman upon it, supported by small wood, which concealed her, and formed a pyramid. They then placed their sick people around the pile, at a short distance. On A. Cottrel, our informant, enquiring the reason of this, they told him that the dead woman would come in the night and take the devil out of them. At daybreak the pile was set on fire, and fresh wood added as any part of the body became exposed, till the whole was consumed. The ashes of the dead were collected in a piece of Kangaroo-skin, and every morning, before sunrise, till they were consumed, a portion of them was smeared over the faces of the survivors, and a death song sung, with great emotion, tears clearing away lines among the ashes. The store of ashes, in the mean time, was suspended about one of their necks. The child of the deceased was carefully nursed.
A few days after the decease of this woman, a man, who was ill at the time, stated, that he should die when the sun went down, and requested the other men would bring wood and form a pile. "While the work was going forward, he rested against some logs that were to form part of it, to see them execute the work: he became worse as the day progressed, and died before night.
The practice of burning the dead, is said to have extended to the natives of Bruny Island; but those of the east coast put the deceased into hollow trees, and fenced them in with bushes.—They do not consider a person completely dead till the sun goes down!
The chiefs among these tribes are merely heads of families
