342 "widow's cap" of the Australian abokiginbs, 



themselves, but in the Nimbalda Tribe, around Mt. Freeling, in 

 S. AustraKa, other members of the community, not necessarily 

 relatives, " put a plaster on their head."* An analogous practice 

 exists amongst the Antakaringas, near Charlotte Waters, the 

 mourners in general, so says Mr. C. Giles,! smear their heads 

 with white earth. 



Precisely as in the case of the cap-wearers, so the head- 

 plasterers also besmeared other parts of the body. The Aldo- 

 lingas,! Aruntas,§ and Antakaringas|| placed white on their 

 breasts; and the men of the first named a white bar over the 

 forehead. In the Dieri Tribe, inhabiting the Cooper's Creek 

 District, the women added two wide stripes on the arms.U 

 Faces as well as heads were smeared in the Omeo Tribe in Gipps- 

 land.** The head plaster in its simpler form seems to have 

 been retained longer than the more substantial cap, at any rate 

 in some communities, for Roth statesff that the gin mourning for 

 her husband in the Boulia District retained this outward and 

 visible sign even up to six months. In the Antakaringas, on the 

 other hand, the covering was occasionally renewed after the first 

 month, J I and ultimately placed on the grave, a practice we have 

 already seen adopted in disposing of the caps. 



The universality of this external method of displaying grief 

 is particularly well exemplified by its extension into West Aus- 

 tralia, where a very old writer§§ informs us it is the speciality 



* Police-Trooper Smith, in Taplin, Folklore, 1879, p. 88. 



t Taplin, loc. cit. p. 90. 



X Kirchaufif, Jonrn. R. Geogr. Soc. Aust. (S.A. Br.), 1890 ii. p. 37. 



§ Stirling, Anthropology Horn Exped., 1896, p. 137. 



|l C. Giles, in Taplin, lor. cit. p. 90. 

 H Worsnop, Prehistoric Arts, 3rd Edit., 1897, p 62. 

 ** Helms, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, 1895, x. (2), p. 399. 

 +t Ethnological Studies, 1897, p. 164. 

 Xt C. Giles, in Taplin, Folklore, 1879, p. 90. 

 §§G. F. Moore, Descrip. Vocab. Language Aborig. W. Australia, 1S42, 

 p. 26. 



