259 



, simply bewilders them. Strange as — considering all the circum- 

 stances — it may seem, I believe syphilis to be of recent origin 

 among them. There are cases also of something very like 

 leprosy. As a rule they die by murder, of consumption, or of 

 old age. 



When they do not bury their dead, they either burn their 

 bodies, or put them up in trees until only the bones remain. 

 These are then buried. The blackfellow, properly so-called, i.e., who 

 is neither old man nor woman, is entitled to the honour of being- 

 rolled uj) in paper-bark and placed in a tree. Terrible scenes 

 may be witnessed during their burial rites. Here is one. A 

 hole five feet deep — only that I insisted upon this they would 

 not have gone deeper than two feet — the naked body of a dead 

 man alongside. When all was ready they politely requested 

 me to go away. I refused. They insisted, saying that they 

 wanted to cry. When they found I would not go, a scene began 

 which I shall never forget. The men divided into two lots, one 

 to get the corpse into the grave, the other to prevent their doing 

 so. I thought they would pull it to pieces. Meanwhile the 

 women raised a terribly weird cry, and w^orked themselves into 

 a real frenzy. They were armed with ironbark sticks, about two 

 feet long, pointed at one end, and about one and a half inches 

 thick at the other As they sang, they would beat their shoulders 

 and backs with the thick end of this weapon, inverting it every 

 now- and again, and driving the point into the crowns of their 

 heads, every such stroke being followed by a strong squirt of 

 blood. It was terrible, and quite new to me. I snatched the 

 sticks frum the w^omen, and watching for an opening, rushed in 

 with a couple of strong young blacks, caught hold of an arm or 

 leg of the dead man, issued a quick, sharp order, and l)efore the 

 opposing party had recovered from their astonishment at my 

 interference we had dropped the body into the grave. Slowly to 

 low-er it w^as out of the question. Tiien amid most heartrending- 

 yelling they filled in the grave. One man remained sitting on 

 its trunk until buried to the knees. The scene was so awful that 

 children present ran aw^ay, looking back at intervals ov^er their 

 shoulders in most lively terror. And yet it was all acting. 

 Except three or four of the dead man's near male relations, who, 

 wqth heads over each other's shoulders, w^ept quietly apart, the 

 grief of the others was a worked-up frenzy. When all was over, 

 they went laughing aw^ay. 



Very diflerent are our CJjristian burials. And tliey have made 

 a marked impression upon these very impressionable people. One 

 of our young men near to death begged of me not to permit the 

 blacks to bury him, and was quite joyful when T assured him he 

 would get a happy Christian burial, 

 s 



