22 
which case the fossiliferous marine beds above will fall into the 
Upper Marine Group of our Permo-Carboniferous System. 
Ethnology. — Mr. C. Ii. Roberts informs me that the neigh- 
bourhood of the Sassafras was at one time a great refuge ground 
for those aborigines who had offended against their own unwritten 
laws, especially those referring to the connubial state. The main 
offence was that of lubra stealing, great enmity then existing 
between the Braid wood blacks and their neighbours the Maneroo 
tribe.* One of their customs appears to have been this : — Should 
the offending party be caught by the pursuing tribe, when 
travelling in company with the kidnapped gin, the guilty pair 
were simply brought back to their place of departure, and the male 
was then forced to undergo the ordeal of spear-throwing, f This 
consisted in having one hundred spears cast at him when stationary, 
by five men as fast as possible, when the dexterity displayed by the 
culprit in avoiding them is said to have been marvellous. Should 
the man succeed in escaping without fatal injury, the matter was 
considered as settled, honour satisfied, and the woman was 
allowed to remain with him as his wife. On the other hand, 
should the runaways be found cohabiting at the haven of refuge, 
dire vengeance was at once administered, the man killed, and his 
body disposed of in the manner we found the object of our 
search at the Sassafras. Mr. Roberts states that from some 
superstitious custom the legs were severed at the knee, but in 
this particular case it had not been done. Instead, the femora 
had been cleanly divided high up on the body of the bones, and 
then the legs doubled up on the trunk, following a post mortem 
method of preparation customary with several tribes of the 
aborigines. The right femur, however, had been divided by a 
direct oblique clean cut about the commencement of the body, 
and the left tibia had been smashed by a direct heavy blow with 
a blunt instrument just above the lower end of the body of the 
bone, and the injury presents the appearance of having been 
done previous to death. 
We hoped to have found these remains in the mummified state, 
the condition in which they were seen by Mr. Roberts some years 
ago, but the lapse of time, notwithstanding protection from the 
elements, had almost completely destroyed the dried sinews. 
Nevertheless, the whole of the upper part of the trunk is osteo- 
Logically entire, held together by portions of the soft tissues. 
The body was deposited in a small recess in the Hawkesbury 
Sandstone escarpment at the Round Hill, about six miles north 
*The sea-board of this part of N. S. Wales was occupied, according to 
Dr. J. Fraser, B.A., by the Murring tribe. ( Journ . B. 8oc. N. 8. Wales, 
18S2, xvi., p. 20G, note.) 
f A similar custom appears to exist in a more or less modified form in 
several tribes, Mr. Froggatt mentions it as practised by the Kimberley 
blacks. ( Proc . Linn. Soc. N. 8 . Wales, 1888, hi, (2), p. G52.) 
