1 1 8 Spencer, Kitchen Middens and Native Ovens. [v<J. ,ct xxxv. 



five feet above the ground level. There was no sign of the 

 alluvial soil being disturbed. In whatever way the mounds 

 had been formed, the material of which they were constructed 

 had been gradually heaped up on the original ground surface. 

 We found no trace of charred wood or stones, nor any remains 

 of animals that had been cooked — in fact, nothing whatever to 

 indicate that they had been used as ovens. It is most un- 

 fortunate that none of the early settlers, so far as I can 

 ascertain, have given us any sufficiently definite first-hand 

 information in regard to these remarkable structures. 

 Dawson's account,* though apparently he had never seen them 

 in use, is the best. He says that they " were the sites of large, 

 permanent habitations, which formed homes for many genera- 

 tions. . . The vast accumulation of burnt earth, charcoal, 

 and ashes which is found in and about them is accounted for 

 by the long continuance of the domestic hearth. . . They 

 never were ovens, or original places of interment. . . They 

 were only used for purposes of burial after certain events 

 occurred while they were occupied as sites for residences — 

 such as the death of more than one of the occupants of the 

 dwelling at the same time, or the family becoming extinct, in 

 which instance they were called ' muuru kowuutung ' by the 

 Chaa-wuurong tribe . . . meaning ' ghostly place,' and 

 were never afterwards used as sites for residences, and only 

 as places for burial." 



In five of those that we examined we found aboriginal 

 skeletons, the bones of some of which had evidently been dis- 

 turbed by burrowing rabbits. The bodies did not appear to 

 have been buried in any special position, so far as looking 

 towards any special point of the compass was concerned, and 

 the only animal remains that we found associated with them 

 were sixteen tibio-tarsi of the Native Turkey, Eupodotis 

 australis, all of which were lying close to one skeleton. The 

 accompanying illustration (Plate II.) will serve to show the 

 nature of the mounds and the position of the bones of one of 

 the skeletons, which in this case was lying on its right side. 

 In view of the habits of the natives, it is difficult to understand 

 the entire absence of any traces, in the form of stone imple- 

 ments, charred wood, shells, or bones, in mounds such as we 

 examined, if they are the remains of permanent dwelling-places. 

 They persist as relics of our aboriginals who have passed away 

 in Victoria, and, beyond the fact that a certain number of them 

 have been used as burying-grounds, we know very little about 

 them, and have no satisfactory explanation, and now never 

 can have, of their primary origin and use. 



♦"Australian Aborigines," p. 103. 



