66 AVSTEALIAN ABORIGINES. 



calls on the spirits to appear. Sparks like " lighted matches " then come out of the 

 ground, followed by several spirits. The most conspicuous of these spirits 

 represents the person who bewitched the deceased. They then disappear for ever. 

 Some time ago an aboriginal man named Buckley was found dead near 

 Camperdown: his body was put up in a tree and watched. The aborigines 

 declared that the spirits came, but nothing was done to avenge his death. 



A widower mourns for his wife for three moons. Every second night he 

 wails and recounts her good qualities, and lacerates his forehead with his nails till 

 the blood flows down his cheeks, and he covers his head and face with white clay. 

 He must continue to moui-n and wear the white clay for other nine moons, 

 unless he shall succeed in taking a human life in revenge for her death. If he 

 cease wearing the clay before the expiry of three moons without taking a life, 

 his deceased wife's relatives say ' he has told a lie,' and they will attempt to 

 kill him. If the woman left a child, it is taken from its father and given to its 

 grandmother or grandfather to rear ; but if its father succeeds in taking a life, 

 he has a right to take it back. When the husband has had a great affection for 

 his wife, and is anxious to give expression to his grief, he burns himself across 

 the waist in three lines with a red-hot piece of bark. 



A widow mourns for her husband for twelve moons. She cuts her hair 

 quite close, and burns her thighs with hot ashes pressed down on them with a 

 piece of bark, till she screams with agony. Every second night she wails and 

 recounts his good qualities, and lacerates her forehead till the blood flows down 

 her cheeks. At the same time she covers her head and face with white clay. 

 This she must do for three moons, on pain of death. The white clay is worn for 

 twelve moons. Sometimes, towards the end of the period of mourning, one or 

 two stripes of pale brown are painted across the nose and under the eyes, and 

 near the end of the time the colour is changed to red. 



For the same period, and in like manner, adults mourn for a father or 

 mother, and parents mourn for their children if over three moons old. Children are 

 not allowed to paint their heads and faces, but are obliged to show their grief by 

 lacerating their brows and crying. While parents are mourning for their children, 

 they live in a separate wuurn away from their friends. In their lamentations and 

 wailings for the dead, the aborigines always enumerate all the good qualities of 

 the deceased ; and they appear to mourn sincerely. 



The relatives — as far as cousins — of a deceased chief must mourn for him 

 for twelve moons. The other members of the tribe must also mourn for 



