328 EXPLORATION OF ABORIGIXAL ROCK-SHELTERS, 



The teeth present in the upper jaw are sound but very much 

 worn. The right median and lateral incisors are missing and the 

 alveolar process absorbed, no doubt the result of the custom of 

 knocking out teeth at the initiation ceremonj'. Usually only one 

 tooth is removed, and in almost every skull I have examined the 

 one chosen is the right median incisor. Sometimes two are struck 

 out, viz., the right and left median incisors. As far as my 

 experience goes, the I'emoval of two on the same side is unusual. 



Near this skeleton and against the back wall of the shelter I 

 discovered the remains of two children about 2 feet below the 

 surface in damp black soil sparsely mixed with fish bones and 

 shells. A little further along but towards the centre, I unearthed 

 some remains of a third child from a depth of 12 inches, just 

 above a layer of hard black soil; and less than a foot away I 

 recovered the almost complete skeleton of a fourth child under a 

 layer of hard greyish ash covered by a thin layer of shells and 

 loose ash, the total depth of the interment being at the most only 

 4 inches. This child, and as well as I could judge, all the other 

 children, were placed full length in the grave, faces downward. 

 None of the four skeletons were perfect, and in two instances 

 (2nd and 3rd) a mere handful of bones, principally lai^ger bones 

 of the limbs, was found. In one case only (the first and by far 

 the eldest) was the entire skull recoA-ered. The nearest approach 

 to a complete skeleton was the fourth; and this, I think, was 

 owing to the protection afforded by the cement-like layer of ash 

 above it. All the bones of this child are scorched and discoloured 

 by tire, which seems to prove one of two things — either for some 

 superstitious reason a fire was lighted over the bod}^ or that the 

 shelter was subsequently used as a dwelling. 



The latter theory is contrary to our well-founded impression 

 that the aborigines carefully avoided burial places unless com- 

 pelled to hurriedly revisit them for purposes of a new interment. 

 The first explanation seems the more probable, and, allowing for 

 the fact that bones buried afoot or more below the surface would 

 not show very evident traces of the fires built above, it would 

 certainly apply to three of the skeletons— the adult and 3rd and 



