,394 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



appears to \aiy with tlie nature of tlie soil, but about four feet is 

 the average, though this is often exceeded. The corpse is next 

 covered with logs placed longitudinally, tlien with a layer placed 

 transversely, to be followed with a filling in of earth and soil : 

 on top of all this are placed heavy logs and bushes, perliaps some 

 heavy stones, all closely interlaced, and reaching to a height of from 

 three^to four feet above the adjacent surface which is cleared to a 

 fhstance of a few feet all the way round.''' The boomerangs, 

 spears, etc. lielonging to the deceased are eithei- buried w ith him, 

 destroyed by fire, or more rareh^ distributed amongst his brothers 

 while his name ceases to be mentioned. Burial follows almost 

 inniiediately upon death taking j^lace tliough if the closing scene 

 occurs at night it is not carried out until early dawn. The 

 coipse is in no ways decorated or painted. At the grave, 

 aiul wliile it is being dug, in tlie midst of the weeping 

 and the wailing, the woman will cut themselves with stone 

 or glass down the outer and anterior aspects of the thighs, 

 in numerous more or less parallel superficial incisions : 

 previous to the cutting, and possibly with the idea of 

 making the wound all the more painful, the (xlenormiston 

 women ha\e been known to wash their thighs with their urine. 

 These signs of mourning with the females have their counterpart 

 among certain of tlie male relatives at Carlo, Glenormiston, 

 Herbert I)ov\ns, and Roxburg Downs, but apparently not at 

 Boulia, who make a single large and much deeper crucial incision 

 on the corresponding portion of the thigh. The actual burial 

 being completed, all return with many a sob and tear to the 

 camp where they plaster their heads with blobs of " parta" (PPT), 

 or g3-psum, causing the whole head of hair at a distance to appear 

 ■one mass of white (PI. Ixxiii., fig. 1) ; owing to such fixing-up with 

 this material, a mourner is si)oken of as " parta-maro," ie. plaster- 

 possessor. In any camp uncontaininated and away from the 

 settlements, this plastering is atlopted by all, whether the deceased 

 ])e man, women or child, though it is worn longer by the nearer 

 relatives, if. the widow or widower, blood-brothers and -sisters. 

 It is these nearer relatives, and they only, who in addition, colour- 

 grease themselves down as far as the waist, both back and front, 

 \vith led and yellow ochre in pattei'ns varying with the .sexes, and 

 wear an opossum-string armlet ; in the case of a young child 

 deceased, no painting would be adopted by anyone. Exclusive 

 of the nearer relatives, in addition to the gypsum, or more usually 



'" Tn the Pitta Pilta laiii^uage of Eoulia, a gravi' is called imir-ra IvaiiiV)( 

 (i^stick stone). 



