THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 105 



would carry about with them the body of a dead child, even when 

 in an advanced state of putrefaction, and in times gone by the 

 dried hand of a deceased relative was highly valued, and was 

 carried about as a means of indicating the source of any threatened 

 danger. An excellent specimen of a dried hand is in the Mel- 

 bourne Museum, and is considered by Mr. A. W. Howitt to be 

 the only known existintj specimen in Australia, An interesting 

 account of the manner in which it was used is attached to the 

 specimen. When it was desired to utilize the powers of the hand 

 it was held before the face of the owner, who turned round and 

 round so as to face all directions, and the hand was supposed to 

 oscillate in the direction of the threatened danger. This use of 

 a hand is extremely interesting and suggestive, reminding us 

 forcibly of the old Jewish rite of the holding up of hands, as 

 when Joshua was fighting with Amalek, and " when Moses held 

 up his hand, Israel prevailed, " and when " he let down his hand 

 Amalek prevailed" — Exodus xvii. To this day the holding up 

 of a hand is one of the ceremonial performances amongst the 

 Arabs, and hands made of silver and carried on long poles are 

 prominent objects in the religious festivals of the Mahometans of 

 India. The hand of God is frequently alluded to in the Bible as 

 going before the people as a protector and guide. It is very 

 curious to find the Australian aborigines imbued with so very 

 analogous a belief. 



Ancient Egyptian mummies are familiar examples of perfect 

 preservation of human and other bodies. 



In the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, there are a couple of 

 cases containing dried or mummied bodies of Australian 

 aborigines from North Queensland. The Australian Museum, 

 Sydney, contains a mummy or dried body of an aboriginal 

 woman, from Cairns, Queensland. 



Amongst the North American Indians, and some of the old 

 races of South America, the preservation of human bodies, entire 

 or in part, was a widely spread custom. 



There is in the Melbourne Science and Art Museum a most 

 curious preserved head, the only one of the kind which I have 

 seen. It is described as being obtained from the tribes of the 

 Napo, a tributary of the Amazon River. A tribe named Jivaros 

 preserve the head of hostile chiefs slain in battle. The head is 

 first put up on a pole to be insulted and jeered at. The bones 

 are then removed from the head, and the flesh and skin with the 

 hair attached, carefully dried and preserved. In this operation the 

 head shrinks to perhaps one-third of natural size, but the outlines, 

 and even expression of the features, are preserved in a remark- 

 able degree. The head is then used as a friendly deity, to indi- 

 cate the right times for going to war, to hunt, &c. This descrip- 

 tion is condensed from that accompanying the specimen. Again, 



