606 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
spot and burn the body, with the exception of the skull; this 
they carried with them until they chanced to fall in with a 
cemetery in which a number of skulls were heaped together, 
when they added the one with them to the number, and covered 
it up with bark, leaves, &c. They do not bury their dead in the 
earth, nor is there any ground for supposing that either weapons 
or food were placed in the tree with the corpse. 
During the whole of the first night after the death of one of 
their tribe they will sit round the body, using rapidly a low, 
continuous wail or recitation to prevent the evil spirit from 
taking it away. They were exceedingly jealous of this ceremony 
being witnessed by strangers, but an opportunity was afforded to 
Mr. R. H. Davies, to whose highly interesting account of the 
aborigines I have been much indebted in the compilation of this 
paper, of becoming an eye-witness of the proceedings during the 
whole night. 
According to Dr. Milligan, the dead were variously disposed of 
by different tribes: by some the bodies were burnt, by others 
placed in various attitudes in hollow trees and abandoned ; while 
by others the dead bodies were thrown into holes made by the 
casual uprooting of large trees, and partially covered with leaves 
and rubbish. 
When they go into mourning they rub themselves over with 
white pipe-clay, giving them a ghastly appearance. 
SPIRIT WORLD AND MYTHOLOGY. 
The moral apprehensions which prevailed amongst the abori- 
gines were peculiarly dark and meagre. It is remarkable that 
a persuasion of their being ushered by death into a happier state 
of existence was almost the only remnant of a primitive religion 
which maintained a firm hold on their minds ; but their ideas of 
a life beyond the grave were entirely of a sensual kind. To be 
enabled to pursue the chase with unwearied ardour and unfailing 
success, and to enjoy with unsated appetite the pleasures which 
they counted on earth, were the chief elements which entered 
into their picture of an elysium. While there was no term in 
their vocabulary to designate the Supreme Being, they stood in 
awe of an imaginary spirit, who was disposed to annoy and hurt 
them. The appearance of this malignant demon in some horrible 
form was especially dreaded by them in the season of night. They 
seem to have thought the spirit world was above, and believed in 
the continued existence of spirits, whom they called “ Rowra,” 
and that the spirits of departed friends came and talked with 
them, and that at death they joined them. Some imagined they 
would go back to their own tribes, and that spirits came to them 
before death and conversed with them. 
