402 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



food. ISText day, two of the old women — mother, widow, or 

 sister — would go out to the resting place, recognise the imprint of 

 a human foot'' close to the fire, arrange between themselves to fix 

 the guilt on a darkie of another tribe whose foot-print they would 

 declare it to be, and, returning to camp, spread the information 

 thus obtained. During the crying at night and at dayl^reak the 

 alleged culprit would be cursed and sworn at by the relatives and 

 friends with sucli epithets as " big head," " big belly," " crooked 

 leg," etc., and threatened with what would be done to him when 

 caught. Two or three months later, when the body had rotted, it 

 was taken down by two of the old women, opened out, the skull, 

 jaw, pelvis and limb-bones cleaned up and rubbed with charcoal, 

 while the remainder of the corpse, including the bones of the 

 toes, fingers, ribs, and back-bone, was burnt. Having brought 

 the bones in a dilly-bag back to camp, a fire was made at about 

 one hundred yards distant, and hither the whole company present, 

 including the two women, proceeded. The mother, widow, or 

 sister of the deceased then started hammering away at the pelvis, 

 etc., as before, making it crack when mentioning the name of the 

 person whose foot-print liad been originally detected, and thus 

 confirming the evidence of accused's guilt, the latter being accor- 

 dingly put to death at first apportunity. 



Deformed people, after their demise, were just pushed and 

 jambed naked intu a hollow log, no more trouble being taken 

 over them. 



The bodies of 3-oung boys and girls were never skinned or muti- 

 lated, but usually put up on the tree-platforms unless tliey died 

 suddenly and in good condition when they might be eaten by men 

 and women, the enti'ails, etc., being cut away and buried under 

 three sticks as already described. The corpse of a very young 

 child was roasted whole, and eaten by old women only. New 

 born babies might be killed and eaten, only by the old women, 

 immediately after birth, especially if this process had given the 

 mother much pain or trouble : it was usually the midwife who 

 screwed the infant's neck round, breaking it by liolding the jaw 

 and back of the head between the two hands and so twisting it 

 round. Similarly, if the mother died in child-birth, the child 

 was deemed guilty of having killed the mother, and Avas invari- 

 ably immediately killed and eaten by the old women. 



'''' Purposely made by some old scoimdrel of a " medicine-man " tlie niglit 

 liei'ore. 



