\(JKI'II (.»U!:i:XSLAN'I) KTllNOfJKAIMIY KOTII. 395 



when its supply luiis sliurt, greased ashes or imid by itsv^lf may 

 be smeared o\'er the winkle l)ody as external emblems of grief. 

 Crying and weeping is repeated nightly for a week or two, 

 especially by the nearer rehitives who may repair to the grave for 

 tlie purpose, the sisters continuing when tlie brotliers cease ; they 

 generally go in parties l)eing af i-aid to go singly on account of the 

 deceased's ghost, sjnrit, etc. Food, pituri, tobacco, etc., may be 

 left regularly at the graveside, and tlie corpse openly informed to 

 that effect. If the individual who doomed, pointed the bone, etc.,**'^ 

 at the deceased has been recognised before the death took place, 

 his identity would be confirmed, or otherwise discovered here by 

 the tracks from the spirit, etc., at the grave. When an individual 

 ha.s been killed by the whole tribe collectively, <.'^, in punishment 

 for some serious crime, he is usually made to dig his own grave, 

 which is subseijuently closed in similar manner except that the 

 boomerang.s, etc., with which he has been done to death are substi- 

 tuted for the long logs innnediately covering thecorpse ; wlien, as in 

 cases of murder, the assassin lias been caught red-handed, the slayer 

 and slain are buried together in the same grave previously dug 

 by the survivor. In time of open hostilities, those who are killed 

 are left on the field l)y their enemies, with broken spear or boomer- 

 ang close beside to show the passing wayfarei- how tlie iiidi\ iduals 

 in (juestion met their death. 



1 0. In the Cloncun-y District among the INIaitakudi, the corpse is 

 usually buried in a crouching position with head down, enclosed 

 in a net perhaps, then covered with some tea-tree bark, and the 

 earth thrown on top : no logs or sticks are piled up above, but 

 the ground is smoothed to the level of the surrounding surface 

 and a more or less circular area cleaned up. When night falls, a 

 fire is lighted at a few yards distant from the grave, and some 

 meat, etc., hung up on a neighbouring tree : this may be repeated 

 for three or four nights following, and occasionally now and again 

 during the next few months, until it is believed that the deceased 

 " has got too old, has gone away somewhere else." In the olden 

 days the women usefl to wcjar the gvpsum as a sign of mourning, 

 but nowdays both sexes only besmear themselves witli mud, or 

 else paint themselves red as far down as the waist ; incisions used 

 also to be made along the fronts of the thighs, several small 

 superficial ones on the women, and two or three deep ones oq the 

 meu. Whire uo visible or otherwise intelligible cause of death 

 presents itself, one of the niedicine-mea will tind out whether tliis 



''•^ Eull. 5— Sect. 14-i. 



