SUPERSTITIONS AND DISEASES 61 



relatives returned, and burned the wuurn and the remains. If a mother was 

 affected by the disease, her child was immediately removed and given to a 

 female relative to rear, while the mother was left to die. The aborigines say 

 that the Meen warann came from the west in form of a dense mist ; and that the 

 chief places of mortality were round the Moyne Lagoon, and on the sand 

 hummocks to the east of Port Fairy. 



At the last of these visitations, also, great numbers died near the sea coast, and 

 were buried in the hummocks at Mill's Reef, two miles east of Port Fairy. The 

 skeletons were exposed some years ago by the drifting of the sand, and were found 

 to be buried in pairs. This proves that the deaths were not then considered to 

 be caused by any contagious disease, else the relatives would have abandoned the 

 bodies, and only returned to burn the bones. It may be here said that there was 

 a considerable slaughter of the natives at the same place by the white men, and 

 the natives say that those who had escaped returned after some short time and 

 buried their dead ; but they did not bury these in pairs. The writer saw, about 

 the year 1844, an aboriginal of the Hopkins River tribe as thoroughly marked 

 with the small-pox as ever he saw a white man. 



For scabies the natives have no cure, and they treat an infected person as 

 though he had the leprosy. They will not touch him ; and, although -they supply 

 him with food and water, they remove their wuurns to a distance, for fear of 

 infection. On the death of the person — for the natives say that they do die of 

 it — the body and everything near it is burned. 



Scrofula is uncommon, and traces of it are seldom observable on their 

 persons. 



Cases of insanity are very rarely met with, but the aborigines believe that 

 there is more of it since the use of intoxicating liquors was introduced, and 

 especially since they began to disregard their laws of consanguinity in marriage. 

 When a case of insanity occurs, a consultation is held among the relatives ; and, 

 as they have a very great dread of mad people, the afflicted person is put to death. 



Children born with any deformity or defect attributable to close consan- 

 guinity, and likely to render them an encumbrance to their parents in their 

 wanderings about the country, are destroyed. In an instance of two dumb 

 children, which was attributed to this cause, the tribes would have put them to 

 death but for the British law. 



