11 



to a prolonged process of smoking over a slow fire. This 

 will explain the blackening and occasional charring of the 

 bones. 



Mr. Taplin, in his account of the Narrinyeri in "Native 

 Tribes of South Australia" (1, 20), d) describes this smoking 

 process, but says nothing as to subsequent burial. In his 

 "Folklore," etc. (2, 37), he mentions that at the conclusion 

 of the long smoking and drying process the body "was put 

 on a stage in a tree and after a time buried." How long it 

 was left on this tree platform before burial Mr. Taplin does 

 not say, but I know that it was sometimes left in this posi- 

 tion for years — so long, in fact, that it would seem as if no 

 further disposal of it had been intended. This, however, 

 may have been because of the discontinuance of their proper 

 native customs due to the influence of the whites. 



In the course of this long exposure, as I have repeatedly 

 seen, the small and easily detached bones, such as those of 

 the feet and hands and, even, the lower jaw, were apt to fall 

 to the ground or be removed by carrion-eating birds, and, if 

 afterwards the bones were buried, it can be easily understood 

 how some of them should be missing and others relatively 

 displaced. 



The not infrequent absence of the cranium, which, from 

 its size, is not likely to have disappeared in this fashion, 

 may not unreasonably be accounted for by the practice 

 among the Narrinyeri, as indeed among some other Aus- 

 tralian tribes, of utilizing skulls as vessels for carrying- 

 water. ( 2 ) 



Of the bones found broken it is possible that the more 

 fragile ones might have been fractured by rough usage such 

 as dropping them, or the body, into a deep hole ; but this 

 would scarcely account for the fracture of such strong bones 

 as those of the thigh, which, also, were not unfrequently 

 found broken into two or more pieces. Some of these frac- 



<i) The figures, within brackets, occurring in the text refer to 

 the bibliography at the end. The first figure in heavy type cor- 

 responds to the number of the work referred to and that in 

 lighter type to the page. Where it is necessary to indicate a 

 particular volume its number will be expressed by a Roman 

 numeral interpolated between the former two. 



(2) Unfortunately this interesting form of utensil is repre- 

 sented in the National Museum only by a cast, for which it is 

 indebted to the Australian Museum, Sydney ; the original, in the 

 possestsion of that institution, having been obtained on the 

 Coorong, South Australia. This is an example, of which many 

 others might be given, of how interesting and sometimes unique 

 relics have, from want of proper foresight, been allowed to leave 

 the country of their origin. 



