10 



was very soft and presented little obstacle to penetration, 

 while a little farther to the north it was of harder consistence. 

 Such a position, however, was quite exceptional, and the 

 great bulk of the bones lay, as stated, just above, or on, the 

 band of travertine, which was about 4 ft. below the surface 

 of the ground. Mr. Zietz further noted that the bones 

 found at the lower part of the slope were in a much better 

 state of preservation than those found farther away from 

 the river, which might indicate a later date of interment in 

 the former position, but he also remarked that bones found 

 resting on the travertine were liable to be decomposed, owing 

 probably to the continued action of water, to the drainage of 

 which this more impervious stratum presented an obstacle. 



As regards attitude, the majority of the skeletons were 

 found in the trussed position in which many Australian tribes 

 bury their dead — that is to say, the body was in a sitting 

 position with the knees drawn up to the chest, the elbows 

 bent so that the hands are brought up to the face, and the 

 head bent forwards over the flexed knees. Sometimes in this 

 trussed position the body lay on one side. In some instances, 

 as was the case with the skeleton exposed during my first 

 visit, the body had apparently been thrown into the grave 

 anyhow ; none were seen lying stretched out straight in the 

 supine position. In only a few instances two, but not more 

 than two, skeletons lay in one hole, and in some of these 

 cases they were those of an adult and child. Even where the 

 bodies lay in closest juxtaposition they had still apparently 

 been buried separately. 



Not infrequently the skull and other bones were found 

 covered with a tenaciously adherent black encrustation, as if 

 from prolonged exposure to smoke, and in some cases the 

 surface of the bones had been charred, or, even, the whole 

 thickness destroyed. In several instances, as indeed in the 

 skeleton I saw removed, the cranium — usually so conspicuous 

 an object in an exhumation — could not be found after the 

 most careful search, though in this particular case a lower 

 jaw of remarkable size was present. Once, the cranium being 

 absent, two lower jaws were found accompanying the rest of 

 the skeleton. Very frequently the small bones of the foot 

 and hand were absent, and the remaining bones did not 

 occupy their proper relative positions, and occasionally the 

 long bones of the extremities were found broken. 



Many of the conditions and deficiencies just recorded 

 can be accounted for by the burial custom of the Narrin- 

 yeri tribe, to which the natives of this locality belonged. It 

 was their practice, among other elaborate procedures, to place 

 the bodies of their dead upon a platform and subject them 



