Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 99 



Straits. At first I was inclined to believe that this may 

 be due to the influence of the Early Egyptian (Second 

 Dynasty) procedure (89), but a fuller consideration of the 

 evidence leads me to the conclusion that the adoption 

 of the flexed position is due to syncretism with local 

 burial customs, which were being observed when the 

 bringers of the " heliolithic " culture reached Australia. 

 It is probable that the boomerang came from Egypt, via 

 East Africa, India (12) and Indonesia at the same time. 



Several curious burial customs which may be regarded 

 as degradations of the practice of mummification occur in 

 Australia, but the consideration of these I must defer for 

 the present. 



In the discussion on Flower's memoir (19), Hyde 

 Clarke justly emphasized " the importance of the demon- 

 strations in reference to their bearings on the connection 

 of the Australian populations with those of the main con- 

 tinents, and in the influence exerted in Australasia at a 

 former time by a more highly cultivated race. This, to 

 his mind, was the explanation of the relations of the 

 higher culture, whether with regard to language, marriage 

 and kindred, weapon names, or modes of culture, such as 

 the mummies now described, the modes of incision, and 

 form of burial. He did not consider these institutions, 

 as some great authorities did, indigenous in Australia " 



(19, P- 394)- 



Corroborative evidence is now accumulating (70), 

 which will definitely establish the reality of the influence 

 thus adumbrated by Clarke 37 years ago. 



Frazer (22, p. 80) says the burial (in Australia) on a 

 raised stage reminds him of the " towers of silence," and 

 adds : — "This novelty of a raised stage can scarcely be a 

 thing which our blacks have invented for themselves 

 since they came to Australia ; and. if it is a custom which 



