50 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



present. The colour red, amongst black races, was the symbol of 

 evil.* 



Mr. Maurice Hayes, of Queahgong, informed me that he has 

 known the rock for the past fifty years, and that the imprints 

 have not altered in the least. He found it difficult to obtain 

 reliable information from the Aborigines regarding them ; they 

 expressed ignorance, but ultimately gave him to understand that 

 the " hands were the imprints of those of their Deity, when on 

 earth." 



The large alluvial flats in this neighbourhood, along the Wollon- 

 dilly, were, I was informed, great gathering grounds for the 

 various tribes from many miles round, even those of Goulburn 

 and Shoalhaven participating. 



On a spur overlooking one of these green expanses, known as 

 Gorman's Flat, immediately at the junction of the WoUondilly and 

 Nattai Rivers, in Portion B. 171/587, Parish of Wingecarrabee, 

 County Westmoreland, we investigated an interment, thirty years 

 old, indicated by a single carved tree, but the device has, T regret 

 to say, been wantonly destroyed. This grave is known to be 

 that of "Jimmy Aremoy," or " Blackman's Billy," of the local 

 tribe, and called in the Aboriginal dialect Ah-re-moy, and was 

 covered by a small mound at the foot of a small tree, forty-seven 

 feet north of the carved tree, and had been surrounded by a 

 sapling fence. After removing! the mound and superincumbent 

 soil, we found the grave had been filled with boulders and large 

 pieces of rock, to the depth of four feet six, whilst under this was 

 a layer of split timber and bark. On removing this, we found 

 the skeleton well wrapt in what had once been an old coat, a 

 blanket, and an opossum rug. The skeleton was doubled up in 

 the usual manner, the arms drawn up to the breast, and the legs 

 against the abdomen, placed on the right side, and facing the 

 south-east. On endeavouring to remove the remains, the whole 

 collapsed, and it was found possible to secure only the skull and 

 limb bones. The whole of the bones were blackened and much 

 decayed, from the presence of a good deal of soakage water. Mr, 

 Maurice Hayes told me that the local Aborigines generally buried 

 in a sitting posture, the corpse being in a small drive from the 

 bottom of the grave proper — the Tlieddora Trilje, at Omeo, buried 

 in a similar mannerj — and with a stake driven through the 

 skull from above ; but in this case the deceased had certainly 



* Fraser, Journ. E. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1882 [1883], xvi., p. 213. 



fThe grave was opened with the permission and assistance of Mr. 

 Maurice Gorman, the owner of the ground. 



JHowitt, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1884, xiii., 

 p. 190. 



