XuliTil (iUKKNSLAND KTHNOfUtAPHV — ROTH. 399 



children, male or female, defoi'iued or not, etc. Wherever a l)lack 

 di(»d or was eaten, the trees in close proximity wer(> nicked around. 



In the case of adults, immediately after death, some old " medi- 

 cine man " not necessarily a relative would cut off the whole 

 genitalia if a male, the clitoris only if a female, wrap them up in 

 grass and place them high up in the fork of a tree : this was 

 significatory of tiie sexual instinct being finished with, and to 

 prevent the spirit (nguru) of the dead entering into sexual re- 

 lations with the living. The next process depended upon whether 

 the corpse was to be eaten or not : it was eaten if deceased was a 

 well-known warrior, a medicine-man, a man or woman killed in 

 fight, or a woman dying suddenly in good condition. 



If determined on eating the body, it was immediately carried, legs 

 foremost, on the shoulders of two or three old men to a distance of 

 half or three-quarters of a mile from the camp, which was thereupon 

 shifted, the men, women and children following. When a bigfire had 

 been made, the body was laid face downwards on a large sheet of 

 tea-tree bark lying alongside. The others squatted in groups in 

 a circle all round the deceased, a few yards distant, each with its 

 own fire. One "medicine-man" now took the sap-wood of an old 

 tree, a piece about a foot long and three or four inches wide, got it 

 well lighted, removed the bui-ning cinders, and while still glowing, 

 applied it all over the corpse, except the head, thus singeing off 

 every vestige of hair (except of course that of the scalp hair and 

 beard) and causing the flesh to turn a kind of light brown colour ; 

 he then rubbed the whole body over with his hand, thus removing 

 all the burnt shreds of outer skin and hair particles. Standing about 

 one hundred yards away were three other "doctors" each holding 

 a stone knife in his mouth .• one of them would advance singing, 

 the knife now held in his hand, pass through the circle of scat- 

 tei-ed groups, and reach the corpse. If the corpse was that of a 

 male, it la}^ on its stomach. The newcomer after making a median 

 incision right through the skin from top of the head, along the 

 neck, right down the middle of the back as far as the anus, would 

 tlien retire to join the groups around; the second "medicine-man" 

 would advance in similar fashion and incise, from the median cut 

 just made, across the shoulders down the middle of the backs of 

 the arm, fore-arm, and hand as far as the knuckles, and similarly 

 retire ; he would be succeeded by the third doctor who cut from 

 the exti"emity of the median incision, down along tbe middle of 

 the buttock, and back of each thigh, leg, and heel. If the corj^se 

 vras that of a female, it lay on its back, the three incisions being 

 correspondingly made on the front : median, from the top of the 

 head right through the middle of the nose and face, down the 



