PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALASIA. 



1329 



It is supposed to have great curative powers in sickness, especially in rheumatic aff-r- 

 tions, and is spread like a blanket over the patient. Some tribes have regular burial- 

 places, with the insignia of the various totems cut in the bark of the surrounding trees, 

 and with mysterious symbols raised in relief on the ground ; while others dispose of 

 their dead in the localities where they die. The natives go into mourning after various 

 fashions. In some places both sexes cut off their hair, and gash themselves, while the 

 women smear their foreheads with filth. Everywhere some sort of distinctive face-paint 

 is applied, but tastes differ in this as in other matters. Some tribes consider black 

 paint and grease to be appropriate symbols of woe, but more frequently the natives use 



A NATIVE TROOI'KK FOLLOWING A TRAIL. 



yellow ochre, pipe-clay, or burnt gypsum, and the "messenger of death" has white circles 

 painted round his eyes. A very common practice is to cover the heads of the women 

 with a thick plaster of pipe-clay, or burnt gypsum, made into a paste with water. This 

 is left on their heads until it dries and falls off ; and, in some places, the detached 

 lumps are placed on the grave of the departed. 



Wherever the Australian blacks have been brought into contact with the white men, 

 they an; fast disappearing. The ancient regulations which governed their social condition 

 are broken down, and no sufficient substitute is provided. Drunkenness, the disease of 

 vice, and the occupation of their hunting-grounds by the cattle of the settlers, altering 

 their modes of life, and bringing them into surroundings which are disadvantageous to 



