42 A NATIVE BURIAL GROUND. 



question which has not quite been settled yet would be 

 whether the dead would 'have been carried bodily to the 

 burial ground, or only their ashes. From all we know 

 about the habits of the Aborigines, the latter view is 

 more probably the correct one. 



It may appear that I have gone at some length in 

 discussing a rather trifling question. The conclusions 

 we may, however, draw from this as to earlier history of 

 mankind are of the greatest importance. We may con- 

 clude that early man disposed of the dead bodies by 

 cremation, and that the custom of burying the corpse is 

 of much later date. It is therefore not to be w^ondered 

 at that the remains of diluvial and pre-diluvial human 

 beings are so extremely rare. If archaeolithic man died, 

 his relatives disposed of his body by cremation, and only 

 under such fortunate circumstances, when it was impos- 

 sible to get hold of the corpse, which was also protected 

 against animals, was there a chance that the remains 

 would be preserved. The few remains of diluvial man, 

 the famous Spy-Cro-Alagnon race, have been found 

 under circumstances which indicate that these former 

 owners must have come to a rather sudden end while 

 sitting in front of their cave, by being killed and covered 

 by a sudden fall of rocks from above. If diluvial and 

 tertiary man disposed of his dead bodies in a similar 

 way as t'he Aborigines, and there is no reason to assume 

 a dififerent view, the old burial grounds must have long 

 become entirely obliterated, and the same fate is certain 

 to happen to the Tasmanian burial grounds before long. 



