136 
HORN EXPEDITION-ANTHROPOLOGY. 
various animals. Unless any of us be the unconscious host of a hydatid, as a 
souvenir of the trip, no ill effects were experienced from drinking some very evil 
looking fluid. 
Bupiah 
Earth burial is, I believe, the invariable rule in the Arunta as well as in the 
Luritcha tribe. I was informed, as Mr. Gillen also states, that the body is placed in 
the grave in a sitting position with the knees drawn up and the arms bent at the 
elbows; but, though I have no doubt that this is the orthodox fashion, I think 
they have become careless in regard to it, as they have to so many other of their 
customs. In the only grave—a few years old—which came under my observation 
there was nothing to mark its site except a few lengths of saplings laid trans¬ 
versely across the surface of the ground which was quite level. About two feet 
below and immediately over the body, was a large accumulation of two or three 
hundred bones of small marsupials, chiefly those of the arm and leg, each having 
one end embedded in a small rounded knob of Triodia resin. I believe, however, 
that the proper and usual custom is to throw up a rectangular or oval mound of 
earth over the grave, as is done in many other parts of Australia. Mr. Thornton 
informed me of such a case near Tempe Downs, where this mound, about two 
feet high, was very tastefully decorated with large green boughs laid longitudinally 
along a trough on the top, smaller ones being disposed transversely, with the 
leafy ends hanging over the sides of the mound. I believe no food is buried with 
the body, and the suggestion provoked laughter, as being quite an unnecessary 
provision. 
A systematic enquiry into the geographical distribution of the Australian 
methods of the disposal of the dead might lead to some interesting results. Tree, 
or platform, burial used to be the custom with the Narinyeri tribe about the 
Lower Murray and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and the practice extended, at 
least, 100 miles southwards along the coast. North of the Narinyeri tribe, along 
the Murray, others succeed who have adopted earth burial, and this practice is 
with varying modification carried through the heart of the continent as far as 
Tennant’s Creek, where tree burial comes again into force. A vailety of the same 
plan exists throughout the tribes of the Gulf of Carpentaria* and a combination 
of the two at Port Darwin, f 
* Customs, Rites, etc., of the Aboriginal Tribes of the Gulf of C.arpcntar-ia, W. G. Stretton. Trans. Roy. 
Soc. of S.A., vol. xvii., 1893. 
t Aborigines of N. Australia, R. Foelschc. Roy. Soc. of S.A., vol. v. 
