366 HECOKDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



and by so doing, to insure the well-being of the survivors. Death, 

 disease and accident are not natural phenomena in that they are 

 believed to be due directly or indirectly to human agency,- to 

 some enemy in the Hesh or spirit^ dooming the individual to a 

 particular form of death pjj. by lightning, flood, spear : it is this 

 spirit of the dead in one form or another that brings all 

 their troubles and dangers to the living, and hence the anxiety of 

 the latter to satisfy its claims to the last farthing. Furthermore, 

 the influence for good or for evil of such spirits is to be judged 

 from the bodies whence they have been originally derived,' witli 

 the result that the spirits of women, children, infirm and invalid 

 old men, whom, during life, the survivors had no reason to fear, 

 need not be bothered about in the way of ceremonial to the same 

 extent as is considered necessary with the more virile of the men.' 

 Deceased warriors have to be well propitiated to prevent them 

 returning to do evil to the living. On these lines, the differences 

 in the funeral obsequies depending upon the prowess, sex, age, etc. 

 of the departed can be accounted for, minor distinctions in the 

 methods of Iiolding the inquest and discovering the ouljjrit 

 varying with the modifications in local superstitions. 



Again, this ignorance of the true meaning of death leads to 

 difficulties in recognising the period of its occui-rence," the exact 

 time of tlie spirit's release from its fleshy prison ; these difficulties 

 are all the more excusable when it is remembered that the spirit, 

 vital principle," etc., may be associated either with the shadow, 

 breath, heart, after-birth, ears or nose, and hence can be seen, heard, 

 smelt, etc. As a consequence, it comes about that the deceased 

 may s^Deak and be spoken to, that he may be supplied with 

 victuals at the grave-side, that he may be fixed in the best position 

 suitable to allow of him watching the ceremonial dances etc. 

 carried out in his especial honour, and that he may be decorated 

 to such an extent as will satisfy his vanity to the full. It thus 

 also follows that only when the spirit has been propitiated and 

 avenged (by the sacrifice of another's, etc.) that what remains of 



2 Bull, 5— Sects. 113, 11-4. 



3 Bull. 5— Sects. 115, 116. 



4 BiUl. 5— Sect. 65 et seq., 74, etc. 



■^ Bull. 5 — Tlie names of females wliicli are iiecessarilj tabu after dcalli, 

 Sect. 72. 



<> The Pitta Pitta natives of Boulia use tlic same word i-clii to express the 

 verbs to die, to lie down. 



' Bull. 5— Sects. 65 to 70. 



