1328 AUSTRALASIA ILIA'STRATKD. 



a dream, or vision, in which he sees the man who has done him to death. This is the 

 operation which has been erroneously described as "the taking of the kidney fat." 



It has been frequently asserted that the Australian Aborigines have no religious 

 belief, but this is a mistake. Among all the tribes there is a belief in the existence of 

 a Great Ancestral Spirit, known by various names, such as Daramulum, /taiawc, JJiuijil, 

 etc., and spoken of with bated breath as "Our Father." His name is seldom uttered, 

 excepting during the ceremonies of initiation or other specially solemn occasions, reference 

 being made to him by pointing upwards, or by the use of the term " Our Father." 

 According to the tradition, he formerly lived upon the earth, and gave to the tribes the 

 laws which govern marriage and descent, taught them how to hunt, and instructed 

 them in the manufacture of their weapons, utensils, etc. In short, he is their Great 

 Ancestor, a sort of deified Australian Abraham, who being removed from earth to sky, 

 still exercises over his descendants a supervision, which, though benevolent, is stern to 

 punish offenders against the ancestral customs. Some tribes believe that he lives in a 

 sort of " divine inaction." The active agent between him and his children on earth being 

 his son Tundun (known by various names in various localities) whose voice it is that is 

 heard in the initiation ceremonies when the wooden instrument, already mentioned which is 

 known as a plaything to English boys as the " bull-roarer," and to German lads as the 

 brummer makes its booming sound. This is precisely the " Voice of Oro" heard among 

 African tribes, and produced by the same instrument. The natives believe also in other 

 beings who are supernatural, but who were all formerly men upon the earth. In short, the 

 spirit-world is, to their minds, a reproduction of the material. The dead are living there much 

 as they lived here, but not unmindful of their descendants, whom they visit in dreams 

 and visions of the night, or in the shape of the animals which are their totems, warning 

 them against danger, imparting magic power, teaching them charms against the witch- 

 craft of their enemies, and generally watching over them ; and the Great Elder or 

 Headman of the spirit-world is Darainitlniii, or by what other name soever he may be called. 



Burial customs differ very widely, and it is impossible to give full details concerning 

 them within the limits of this work. Some tribes bury their dead in shallow graves, the 

 corpse being frequently bound in a crouching posture, and covered with sheets of bark, 

 or heavy logs, to keep the wild dogs or other animals from reaching it. Others leave 

 the body on a stage, or in the fork of a tree, or deposit it within the trunk of a 

 hollow tree, closing the opening with a sheet of bark. In some places the friends of 

 the deceased cut part of his flesh from his bones, and carry it about with them for 

 a time. The dead man's hand is elsewhere slung by a cord round the neck and under 

 the arm of a surviving friend, and is supposed to warn him of clanger by a ghostly 

 pinch. The eating of the omentum fat, to assuage the grief of the mourners, has been 

 already noticed. Certain tribes roast their departed kinsman over a slow fire until the 

 outer skin rises, when it is peeled off, and the body is then basted with grease and 

 red ochre, the "dripping" being carefully preserved for purposes of witchcraft. When 

 the corpse is well dried, it is carried from place to place to be howled over ; then it 

 is put for a time on a stage, or in a tree, and finally buried. A singular custom 

 prevails in at least one locality in Queensland. The corpsa is carefully flayed, and the 

 skin is preserved with the hairy scalp, and even the finger and toe-nails, still attached. 



