198 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



the legs. In this position the corpse was enveloped in a blanket, and 

 bound round with many ligatures, so as to form a shapeless lump. 

 There were about fifty natives present, seated within a small space in 

 front. The women were raising dismal lamentations and cutting 

 themselves with sharp sticks ; while the men were engaged in an 

 earnest consultation as to the place which should be fixed upon for the 

 burial. At length it was determined to be on the banks of the Mac- 

 quarie, at no great distance from the mission station. On the following 

 day the missionary proceeded to the place, and found that the natives 

 had already cleared the grass from a space about twenty feet in 

 diameter; in the centre of this the grave was marked out, of an oval 

 shape, six feet long by three feet wide. After digging to the depth of 

 about a foot, they left a ledge all around the grave of a few inches in 

 width: the excavation, thus diminished in size, was continued to the depth 

 of five feet, the sides not being exactly perpendicular, but sloping slightly 

 inwards. At the bottom of the grave was laid a bed of leaves, covered 

 with an opossum-skin cloak, and having a stuffed bag of kangaroo-skin 

 for a pillow ; on this couch the body was laid, and the implements of 

 hunting and war which the deceased had used during his lifetime were 

 laid beside him. Leaves and branches of bushes were strewed over 

 him, until the grave was filled up to the ledge or shelf above mentioned. 

 Across the grave were laid strong stakes, with the ends resting on this 

 shelf, and on these a layer of stones, which filled the hole to the level 

 of the soil. The excavated earth was then put over the whole, forming 

 a conical heap eight or nine feet high. The trees on each side were 

 marked with irregular incisions, but whether intended as symbols, or 

 merely to identify the place of sepulture, was not understood. All the 

 time this was going on, fires were kept burning around the place, to 

 drive away evil spirits, and the women and children uttered loud 

 lamentations, inflicting at the same time wounds upon themselves. 

 When the grave was completed, all the women and children were 

 ordered away, and the missionary, perceiving that it was expected 

 that he would do the same, retired also. His presumption was that 

 they intended to give utterance to their grief, and that they were 

 ashamed to do it in his presence, or before the women and children. 



The day after the burial the natives visited every spot in which they 

 recollected to have seen the deceased, and fumigated it, for the purpose 

 of driving away the evil spirits. They even went into the missionaries' 

 houses, greatly to the annoyance of the ladies. • 



Their style of mourning consists in bedaubing themselves with pipe- 

 clay ; and a more hideous object than an old woman thus tricked out 

 can hardly be conceived. The body and limbs are streaked with it, 



