NoKTii (.)Ui;i:nslani) i;tji\u(;kaphy — koth. 367 



tlie corpse is tiiially disposed of for .^ood and all, that the deceased's 

 property is divided, the widow taken to wife, and the signs of 

 mourning discarded. 



The significance of the eating of the Ixxly wlioll^^, or in pait, is 

 certainly very difficult to understand. The practice is found 

 indulged in by perhaps oidy the few immediate relatives to practi- 

 cally the entire camp, while the Hesh eaten may be limited to that 

 of virile men only, or again, male and female, old and young, may 

 all be partaken of. Tlie natives will admit that their feelings in 

 the matter are prompted by sentiments akin to love and affection, 

 by hungei', by ideas of sanitation," by a sense of punishment and 

 spite,'' and by fear.'" Without any leading question, and I have 

 made the enquiry over and over again for years past, I have never 

 yet succeeded in learning from an aboriginal, living under native 

 conditions, that the; individual who eats human flesh benefits in 

 any way by accjuiring the moral or physical (jualities of the persoii 

 made a meal off : no male, with any respect for liimself, would 

 wish to obtain the attributes of a woman or child. 



In all cases, the widow becomes ultimately the property of one 

 or other of her late husband's group- or blood-brothers." On the 

 Bloomfield River wlien a single man dies, the woman to whom he 

 may have been betrothed, but not yet cohabitated with, may be 

 betrothed again, or married straight away. The widow, though 

 she may be found now and again even after her re-marriage 

 wearing her late husband's necklet, forehead band, etc., has 

 nowhere any legal right to his property, chiefly consisting of 

 fighting-weapons, which usually passes to one of his brothers. 



The deceased's hut is usually burnt, or taken to pieces. 



White and red, one or other, or both, are the colours ado])ted 

 by the mourners : the former would seem to savour rather of 

 grief pure and simple, the latter being more significatory of the 

 avenging sentiment. Elsewhere'- will be seen a description of 

 the various decorations peculiar to such circumstances, some of 

 them donned only according to the age, sex, rank, etc. of the 

 deceased individual, whilst others (such as the cross-shoulder 



" i.e. to prevent exposure of the botly with euueoiuitant " stinking." 



'•> Bull. 3— Seet. 38. 



10 Safe in tlie knowledge tliat luiving eaten the eorpse, the impossibility of 

 . itself or its spirit returning to do theui liarui is assured. 



1' See Marriage. — Widows. 



i'-* See Deeoration. — Clotliing. 



