1909.] OF THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 315 



An old man of the Murawarri tribe informed me that in his 

 language the kopai ball or tablet is called yurda. When a man, 

 woman, or young person beyond the age of childhood, died, leaves 

 were strewn over the earth covering the grave, and on top of the 

 leaves were laid the yurda. There might be only one or two yurda 

 deposited, or there might be more, depending upon whether the 

 deceased had few or many friends. Mr. E. J. Suttor tells me that 

 he has seen a dozen or more of these kopai balls lying on a native's 

 grave. They were put on as soon as the corpse was buried. 



A Ngeumba blackfellow told me that in his tribe the name of 

 the kopai balls is dliaura. The gypsum was collected, burnt and 

 pounded fine by the women, and the men shaped the dhaura. 



A resident informs me that gypsum is very plentiful on Yantara 

 Station, near Lake Cobham, about 120 miles northwesterly from the 

 Darling River, where tons of it could easily be obtained. Another 

 correspondent, at Kallara Station on the Darling, states that gypsum 

 is quite plentiful there. In fact, gypsum and pipeclay are both 

 easily obtainable along the valley of the Darling, as well as in the 

 hinterland, all the way from its junction with the Murray River up 

 to Brewarrina. There is also a kind of slacked or rotted gypsum 

 which occurs in patches, resembling slacked lime. 



Old Perry and others above quoted said that the object of deco- 

 rating the grave in the way described was to induce the ho-ri or 

 spirit of the dead person, to remain in its place of sepulture and thus 

 prevent its roaming through the camp at night to do injury to anyone 

 with whom the deceased might in his or her lifetime have had a 

 feud. When the spirit saw that its owner's death had been properly 

 mourned for in accordance with the tribal custom, it felt more 

 friendly towards everybody. The spirit comes up during the night 

 and sits on top of the grave and commences licking or sucking one 

 or more of the kopai balls. 



Sir Thomas L. Mitchell is the first author to mention these kopai 

 balls. He says : 



It was on the summit of a sandhill where I fixed my depot on the Darling 

 [Fort Boiirke] that we saw the numerous white balls, and so many graves. 

 The balls are shaped as in the accompanying woodcut, and were made of 

 lime. ... A native explained one day to Mr. Larnier [a member of Sir 



