36 A NATIVE BURIAL GROUND. 



A NATIVE BURIAL GROUND ON CHARLTON 

 ESTATE, NEAR ROSS. (PLATE Y.i. 



By Frit/ Noetling, M.A., Ph.D., etc. 



(Read August loth, 1908.) 



The customs observed by the Aborigines in dispos- 

 ing of their dead relatives and friends have been most 

 carefully described in Ling Roth's book on the 

 Aborigines of Tasmania (1). Rut in perusing this com- 

 pilation anyone must be struck by the rather conflicting 

 accounts given by different observers. 



The earliest, and probably the most trustworthy de- 

 scription of a native grave is given by Peron (2). The 

 corpse was burnt, the ashes covered with a layer of 

 grass arranged in connective rings, forming a low cone, 

 and this was held in position by small wooden wands 

 crossing one another at the top of the cone, their ends 

 being pushed in the ground and held in position by a 

 large flat pebble. Above this was erected a curious 

 tetragonal pyramid of wooden poles, covered with bark 

 and tied together at the top. This structure covered a 

 quantity of ashes, and Peron is most explicit to explain 

 how he extracted the bones from this grave. 



Peron's description is accompanied by a sketch, 

 copied in Ling Roth's book in which three graves are 

 seen — a complete one, another opened in front, and a 

 third one showing only the central cone without the 

 outer pyramid of bark. 



As Peron states that " the monument," as he calls it, 

 was the only one found by him, it is obvious that the 

 sketch is not an exact representation of what he has 

 observed, but rather a reconstruction based on actually 

 observed facts. 



Peron's description is rather emotional, attributing 

 to the Aborigines feelings that he, the sentimental 

 Frenchman of the 18th centurv, mav have had, but 



(1) Ling Roth, The Aborigines of Tasmania, 2nd ed., Hali- 

 fax (England), 1899, pp. 1 16-122. 



(2) Peron and Freycinet, Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres 

 Australis, Paris, 1807-1816. 



