Funeral Ceremonies. 



When a man dies, the corpse is kept for a day, and paint- 

 ed over with ochre. The fat of the deceased is rubbed over 

 the bodies of the mourners, the gins included. In former 

 days the general custom, now only retained by the 

 furthest-out tribes, was to construct a platform of 

 boughs and bark in the forks of trees, upon which 

 the body was left until all the soft parts had been re- 

 moved by birds of prey.* See pis. v. and vi. A bonef 

 (radius) of the left arm of the deceased is then taken, tied 

 to a necklace, and worn round the neck of a relative, who 

 thereby is supposed to acquire the strength and qualities of 

 the deceased. The remaining bones of the skeleton are 

 Avrapped up in paper-bark ( Melal euca leucodendron ) and 

 buried. 



The bodies of old men and old gins are buried in the 

 ground without having been previously placed in a tree. 



The interment is carried out by four men, who stand 

 above the grave (which is about 5 feet deep), and hand the 

 corpse to two men down below. The latter place it in a 

 recumbent posture on its right side, with the legs tucked 

 upwards, and the head resting upon the hands. The female 

 mourners gash their scalps with the points of yam-sticks, 

 and scar the backs of one another. See pis. iii. and vii. The 

 men cut their upper arms and thighs transversely with stone 

 knives, or gash their foreheads with the sharp edges of their 

 spear-throwers. Both parties cover their bodies and hair 

 with pipeclay and ashes. Songs of wailing are sung by both 

 males and females, those of the women resembling the sounds 

 expressed by : — 



Nge e n' 



Ho ho un un. 



* Cj. J. L. Stokes: Discoveries in Australia, 1846, vol. 

 ii., p. 295, Pi seq., and plate; E. J. E^-re : Journs. Expedition; 

 of Discovery into Central Australia, 1845, vol. ii., p. 345, and 

 plate; H. Keppel : A Visit to the Indian Archipelago, 

 1853, Tol. ii., p. 181, and plate: J. D. Wood.^ : 

 Trans. Phil. Soc, S.A., 1879, p. 84; P. Foelsche : 

 Tram. Rev. Soc, S.A., vol. v., 1882, u. 5; Cnrr : The Australian 

 Race, 1886, vol. i., on. 255 and 272; W. G. Stretton : Trans. Rov. 

 Soc, S.A., vol. xvii., 1893. o. 237; T. A. Parkhouse : Anstr. 

 Assoc .4dv. Science, vol. vi., 1895. p. 643; W. E. Roth: Ethno- 

 logical Studies amono; the N.AV. Central Oiieenslanrl Al)orio;ine«, 

 Brisbane, 1897, p. 165, pi. xxiii., fig. 406; T. Worsnop : The Pre- 

 historic Arts, Manufactures, AVorks, Weapons, etc, Adelaide, 

 1892, p. 66, pi. xxxiv. 



t Cf. Spencer and Gillen : The Northern Tribes of 

 Central Australia, 1904, cap. xvii. The Port Essington nativee 

 are said to have carried all the bones about with them in bnRkets. 

 Fof^lsche: Trans. Roy. Soc, S.A., vol. v., 1882, p. 6. 



