WORTH (/IKKXSLANI) ETlIXOnRAlMI Y — ItOTII. 393 



etc.''*" that tlie deceased lias been doomed with, and uiiieli he 

 buries separately to prevent its returning and giving the tribe 

 trouble. He is thus able to understand tlie cause of death and 

 to discover the guilty party. After the burial of this "some- 

 thing," etc. he rejoins the others and all now proceed to the corp.se 

 oVer which they have a good cry, it being finally carried by the 

 same oUi man who did the post-mortem on to the funeral pyre, 

 already lighted, and there left to be consumed. And while the 

 fire burns, the widow will advance along the edge of the scrub 

 in the din-ction of where the sun has just set, waving bushes 

 which she holds in front of her, aiid sweeping them outwards : 

 with lier feet she takes a side-step or two alternately to left and 

 right, the gentle swaying of her limbs and body constituting a 

 most graceful and pleasing movement. With the sweeping of the 

 bushes, she is supposed to drive away the Koi of her late husband. 

 At the next Prun'''', the guilty party is charged with tlie oiFence, 

 and has to answer for it in the usual manner. Dessication is a 

 form of disposal of the dead practised only in the case of very 

 distinguished males, indeed for such as would be considered 

 worthy of cremation with ceremonial ; after being disembowelled 

 and dried by fire on a grid or platfoiin, the corpse is tied up and 

 carried about for months. 



s. On the Russell River, this desiccation process appears to be 

 highly developed, the "mummy" being ornamented (Pis. Ixxi.,. 

 Ixxii.). 



9. In the Boulia District''" when an individual, male or female,^ 

 dies, some bushes are heaped over a net spread out upon tlie 

 ground, and on these the extended body is laid, the arms lying 

 at the sides or down the front. Generally with a spear, the net- 

 is fixed lengthways above, so as to enclose the corpse in a sort of' 

 net sheet. Two or three men, side by side, carry the body resting 

 erosswtiys on their heads, the whole of the camp accompanying 

 them to the burial place. A grave having been dug, the body is 

 laid in horizontally, face up, with the head pointing to the north, 

 which is considered the orthodox position: the depth of the grave 



■■■•* Bull. 5~Seet. 114. 



i'J Bull. 4— Sect. 15. 



'■■'' The account of tlie disposal of the dead in tlie Boulia, Cloneurrv, and 

 Upper Creorgina Districts is extracted and revised from my "Ethnological 

 Studies," etc., published in 1S97 ; coinparatirely very few natives aio now 

 to be met yvith in these areas, those that survive being more or less con- 

 taminated with civilisation. 



