PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION F. 587 



The relics of a monumental grave destroyed by fire were described 

 by the Government expedition, 1905, near Luxmore Head : " In a 

 little sandy flat there was a grave enclosed by wooden slabs, a portion 

 of which has been burnt. Aboriginal markings were faintly discern- 

 ible in places on the wood, and some of the posts had the wood cut 

 away at the top, leaving two spikes like horns at the sides ; others 

 had the wood cut away from the outside towards the centre, leaving a 

 short spike standing up in the middle of the post." In some examples 

 the slab was so carved out that the upper part was only connected 

 with the lower by two thin pillars, or on others the top was mush- 

 room-shaped. 



It is easy to see that the natives used the fire for this work of 

 sculpture, scratching away the burnt parts with pieces of shells. 



Captain Bremer (23), 1824, found the grave of a native on Bathurst 

 Island : " The situation was one of such perfect retirement and repose 

 that it displayed considerable feeling in the survivors who placed it 

 there, and the simple order which pervaded the spot would not have- 

 disgraced a civilised people. It was an oblong square open at the foot, 

 the remaining end and sides being railed round with trees of 7ft. or 8ft. 

 high, some of which were carved with a stone or shell, and further orna- 

 mented by rings of wood also carved. On the tops of these posts were 



placed the waddies of the deceased At the head was placed 



a piece of a canoe and a spear, and round the grave were several little 

 baskets made of the fan palm leaf, which, from their small size, we 

 thought had been placed there by the children of the departed. Nothing 

 could exceed the neatness of the whole : the sand and the earth were 

 cleaned away from the sides, and not a shrub or weed was suffered to 

 grow within the area." These little baskets of fan palm leaf are to-day 

 generally used by the Island people (though they also occur on the 

 mainland). During my stay at the central camp I obtained a large 

 collection of the baskets made by the young Melville Island girls, with 

 a pointed bone of kangaroo. The description of the grave by Captain 

 Bremer proves that in this case a male, and very likely a good warrior, 

 was buried, as indicated by the waddies and the spear (24). The same 



(23) Russell, I.e., p. 34. 



(24) There are not many cases mentioned in which the Australian aboriginals 

 were accustomed to decorate the graves with the implements or weapons of the 

 deceased. Grey made a remark regarding south-west Australia. Mr. Alex. 

 Morton (Hobart), " Notes on a Visit to AVest Australia," Royal Soc. of Tasmania, 

 1898, says from the Murchison River — " If it is a man it is usual to place at the 

 head of the grave a womerah, the property of the deceased." Cf. Herbert Base- 

 dow, I.e., p. 24, regarding a grave of a woman in the Musgrave Ranges — " The 

 grave in which the corpse had been buried a few feet below the surface had been 

 filled up with earth and a circular mound erected over it to indicate the spot. On 

 the summit of the mound the implements of the gin — a yamstick (' wanna ') and 

 a cooleman ('mika') — had been stuck in the sand in an upright position, 

 almost as a tombstone might be erected." (PI. VI., fig. 1). 



Regarding the question as to how far the pillar grave monument are distri- 

 buted over Australia I got very little information. The only comparable thing 

 is a. simple small painted slab from a grave of MacArthur River, preserved in the 

 Adelaide Museum. Some gentlemen at Port Darwin asserted that they had seen 

 similar things in the Northern Territory, but without definite statements. 



