30 THE ABORIGINES OF THE LOWER MURRAY, LOWER 
is kept in this tidy condition for two or three years ; after the 
lapse of that time, however, the whole arrangement is left to 
dwindle to decay, and after a few more years the very site of it is 
forgotten. 
When a first-born child dies, should it be a son (if a daughter 
carries with her wherever she goes, and at night sleeps with it by 
her side; and this loathsome custom she continues to carry out 
for six months, until, from decay, nothing but a few bones remain 
in the bundle ; after this, the bones are put in the ground and 
forgotten. 
without the slightest murmur, deeming it, doubtless, one of those 
sacred customs which have been habitual to them from the 
remotest period, and which to omit would be sacrilege of the very 
worst. 
When very old women die or wittals of long standing, of whom 
there ste generally a few in each tribe, a shallow hole is merely 
p ; 
scraped out by the hungry dogs of the camp, which is not by any 
means unusual, and the poor remains of humanity voraciously 
devoured by the ghoul-like brutes ; then, instead of viewing this 
such occurrences, in fact, being deemed fitting in every respect for 
the display of their vile and prurient wit. ee 
BREVITY oF ABORIGINAL Lire. 
The Sick and how attended—Bleeding and other modes of cure—Snake-bite 
and its treatment—Obstetrical. 
Length of life is not a feature that pertains to these people ; in 
most subjects, old age sets in ere thirty-five years have been 
a 
