# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 6

Death, and Burial of the Dead.
The instincts which govern the behaviour of the lower animals in the treatment of their young seem to prevail, with some modifications, in all communities of savages. If produced at the wrong time, or at the wrong place, the young are neglected or destroyed; if burdensome, they are abandoned. And yet, stronger than the maternal love of the tigress or the lioness is that of the Australian Aboriginal woman for a favorite child. She will die in an effort to preserve it, and as willingly suffer the pangs of hunger, and the prolonged misery of hard travel, to secure it from injury. When one which she has loved dies, she keeps it still. Its little body is placed in a bag, and she carries it, together with all that her master and husband may order her to bear, for days and days through the forest, weeping now and again, as the senseless body beats against her sides, and seems to chide her for the roughness of the passage. At the camp at night it is put in a safe place, and not the most frivolous amongst the young men would dare to exhibit by look or gesture his disapproval of the sacred duty of the mother.
If the loads which she has to carry become inconvenient, the mother will unpack the bag containing her child, break its bones with a stone hammer, re-pack the remains, and take them with her, even when the stench of the dead body is so offensive as to keep her friends at a distance.
When other ties and other duties make it impossible for the mother any longer to keep the relics near her person, they are disposed of either by burial, by hiding them in the hollow of a tree, or by committing them to the flames of the funeral pile.
Not less is the regard paid to a deceased person of importance. The hands are cut off; and the two nearest relatives carry these mementos, and hold them sacred, and thus give evidence of the existence in their minds of feelings and thoughts and imaginings which the untravelled European would fain limit to the better educated and the more highly organized of our species.
​The northern tribes in the Colony of Victoria seem to have placed the dead body on a funeral pile, and, with prescribed formalities, lighted the dry wood, and thus consumed the corpse. Some placed the body in a running stream; some threw it across the limb of a tree, so as to be out of the way of the wild dog, but not secure from other flesh-eating creatures; some deposited the dead hunter in a cave; others wrapped the remains in rugs or mats, and placed them on an artificial platform, formed of sticks and branches—where the sentinel-crow was sure to perch, and add a grim solemnity to the picture; many interred the corpse, or put it in an old mirrn-yong heap, or laid it with others—sacred in their memories—in a stone-lined trench cut in the ground.
Perhaps the most common of all methods, as practised by the Aborigines of this period, is that of interring the body.
The southern tribes have no appointed burial grounds for their people. ​The body is buried generally within one or two hundred yards of the spot where the death occurred. When a man approaches his end, his relatives and friends remove him a short distance from his miam-miam—say five or six yards—and, without regard to the weather, lay him upon the grass. One supports his head and shoulders, holding him tenderly in his arms. By his side are placed a cord, made of grass or some fibre, his opossum rugs, which are to form his pall, and perhaps some favorite weapons or utensils. If of a good heart and stout, the dying man regards these preparations without fear, and talks freely of his coming end. Watching him carefully, the attendant sees at length that the awful change has come; and when the last breath has been breathed, he raises the body, throws the pall over the head, and, with the help of his neighbours, fastens it tightly, passing the cord twice or thrice around the neck. The knees of the body are brought quite up to the breast, the elbows over the trunk and near the hips, and the hands raised and pressed against the chest, and in this position the corpse is made fast with the cords. The pall, meanwhile, has been so kept as to conceal the body, and the attendants have scrupulously avoided actual contact with the flesh. Three minutes, or less, are sufficient for these preparations, and the corpse is then ready for the last ceremonials and the tomb.
​The ground around the body is now cleared of grass, which is burnt; and it is then carefully swept, so that the deceased lies in the centre of a circular piece of dry earth, a few feet in diameter. On the ground near the body is placed the tomahawk of the dead man, and his nearest of kin stands within or near the margin of the circle. The male mourners then assemble. The first who arrives seizes the tomahawk and endeavours to maim himself with it, aiming a blow usually at the head; but the relative of the deceased whose duty it is to see that all rites are fulfilled wrenches it from him, and prevents him from inflicting any deadly hurt; and the mourner then quietly seats himself at a distance of three or four or five feet from the corpse. Other mourners follow in like manner, performing the same ceremony, and with the same result. None is suffered by the attendant to maim himself.
Very soon a circle is thus formed on the marge of the cleared space within which the body lies; and if the deceased has made himself remarkable by his deeds or his wisdom during life, and if his tribe is large, two, three, or four circles of male mourners assemble on such occasions.
This ceremonial, simple as it is, strikes one with a kind of awe, and begets respect for this people, when seen for the first time in the glade of a dense forest. The mourners daubed with clay, their faces changed and made strangely to resemble one another by the rings around their eyes, which they have carefully painted with white earth; their bent figures, and their looks cast to the ground; the appearance of order and decency which they exhibit—make one regard this rite as scarcely less solemn than that which is performed when a great warrior of our own people is committed to his last resting-place.
The women are not suffered to come nigh the corpse at this stage of the ceremonial. As soon as it is known that death has stricken their companion, they muffle the dogs in opossum rugs, and collect in groups beside the trees adjacent to the spot where the body lies. They approach not nearer than fifty or sixty or one hundred yards. They give utterance to wild lamentations. They cry piteously, and make heard the sounds of their sorrow far beyond the space occupied by the mourners. There are, however, no screams or hideous outcries. We hear the tones of distress. Their notes are plaintive. They swell, and fall, and grow faint, and rise again. Theirs is truly the wail of bereaved creatures, and there is nothing vulgar in the demonstration, because in their wildest grief and sorrow there is the natural and not the affected outpouring of the heart's misery and desolation. The nearest group, generally composed of three women, leads and directs the sounds of lamentation; the next responds in fainter and yet wilder notes; and, if the tribe is numerous, the dirge is continued far into the forest.
When the body has lain about half an hour, the doctor, or sorcerer, or priest approaches, and he provides each of the inner circle of mourners with a stick about six inches in length. The mourners begin to turn up the earth of the cleared space with the sticks, making trenches about two inches in depth and three inches in width, each trench formed by one mourner meeting that formed by his neighbour—so that a circular trench is quickly excavated around the body.
​The women at this stage cease their lamentations—and all thoughts are directed to the result, the thoughts even of those who cannot see but yet know that a solemn enquiry has been commenced.
As soon as the trench is finished, the doctor and the old men examine it. If an aperture or hole or excavation made by some insect or worm be found in the trench, and if that correspond with some other hole between the trench and the dead body, a connection between them is sought for. A straw or a small reed is used to discover the connection, and if it be determined, their future proceedings are settled; but if that cannot conveniently be done, a line is drawn from the corpse to the aperture in the trench.
In some such way a line is finally drawn, and to whatever point of the horizon it is directed, there must the avengers go to get the kidney-fat of the slayer of their friend. They must bring back to the tribe not only the kidney-fat, but the kidneys and a piece of the flank of the murderer, as a peace offering. By the depth of the aperture in the trench the doctor knows and tells the avengers how far they must travel to find the sorcerer who has caused the death of their friend.
​This inquest being concluded, the digging of the grave is ordered. Two men are selected for this duty. A dry but not a much elevated spot is generally ​chosen, and the grave, when formed, is about three feet six inches in length, two feet or a little more in width, and five feet in depth. With rude implements, and sometimes deeply affected by the circumstances attending this, one of the last rites to be performed in disposing of the body of their deceased friend, it has again and again been observed that the diggers of the grave are never careless or slovenly, and never fail to make it neatly. The sides are straight, and the lines are truly parallel. When the excavation is finally completed, the sides pared clean, and the whole interior carefully swept, it is ready for the reception of the body. At this moment the women renew their lamentations; and the voices of the mourners are raised suddenly, so as to startle those amongst the Aborigines who have not attended many burials. But the sounds are not suffered to interfere with the serious work of interment. One of the men cuts a piece of bark from a suitable tree in the vicinity, and trims it until it is exactly the size of the bottom of the grave, where, as soon as it is finished, it is placed, and over it are strewn fresh leaves and very small twigs of the gum-tree, so as to form a soft bed. The chief mourner now approaches, and standing over the grave, one foot on one side of it and one on the other, he suddenly, and with passion and energy, tears off his reed-necklace and the band which encompasses his forehead, and throws them into the grave. He then runs from the grave towards the women, and attempts or seems to attempt to spear them. This attack is well understood by the old women, and generally by both old and young, and the sorrowful man is allowed to expend his energy, each one taking care to avoid injury. The dead man's effects are produced while this is going on, and the sorcerer now takes the foremost place. He opens the small bag, and slowly and mournfully shakes out the contents; and in like manner empties the large bag. The contents—consisting of pieces of hard stone suitable for cutting or paring skins, small relics, twine made of opossum wool, bones for boring holes, and perhaps some articles obtained from Europeans—are placed in the grave; and the bags and the rugs of the deceased are torn up and thrown in likewise. The sorcerer enquires if there is any other property belonging to the dead man: if there is, it is brought forward and placed beside the bags and rugs. All the articles which he owned in life must be laid beside his body now that he is dead.
On the completion of these duties, the body is borne towards the grave. This is done without ceremony, and in some cases hardly with decency. A stout blackfellow takes the deceased on his shoulders, and hastens with his load to the grave, where he drops it suddenly into its resting-place, but not so as to disturb the earthen walls of the grave. After the breath is out of the body it must not be brought into contact with human hands nor with the earth. As the heavy weight falls with a dull sound on the resounding bark, the sorcerer cries aloud "Koor-re-koor!" He cries "Blood for blood!" or "Life for life!" And though a savage cry, not more mournful is the voice of the officiating priest who says over the body of one of our nation "Ashes to ashes—dust to dust." The wild and weird and mournful cry of the sorcerer has scarcely died away when one of the men steps into the grave and adjusts the body. The widow—as this is done—begins her sad ceremonies. She cuts off her hair above her forehead, ​and becoming frantic, seizes fire-sticks, and burns her breasts, arms, legs, and thighs. Rushing from one place to another, and intent only on injuring herself, and seeming to delight in the self-inflicted torture, it would be rash and vain to interrupt her. She would fiercely turn on her nearest relative or friend and burn him with her brands. When exhausted, and when she can scarcely walk, she yet endeavours to kick the embers of the fire, and to throw them about. Sitting down, she takes the ashes in her hands, rubs them into her wounds, and then scratches her face (the only part not touched by the fire-sticks) until the blood mingles with the ashes which partly hide her cruel wounds. In this plight, scratching her face continually, she utters howls and lamentations and quick-voiced curses on the murderer of her husband, which interrupt strangely and harshly the soft and tender sounds of woe which come from the groups of women in the distance.
Neither the cries of the bereaved woman nor her frantic movements are much noticed by the men who are charged with the duty of interring the corpse. An opossum rug is now put over the body, and carefully wrapped about it, and the spaces between it and the walls of the grave are filled in with leaves and tender twigs; and the body itself is now covered with leaves. Another piece of bark, similar to that lying in the bottom of the grave, and as well and as neatly trimmed, is laid over the covering of leaves and twigs, and little pieces of bark are so placed at the sides as to prevent the earth from falling upon the coverings of the dead man. This brings the whole within two feet and a half of the surface of the ground. These arrangements being satisfactorily completed, a few of the principal mourners approach. Each one after the other steps into the grave, and, standing on the bark, mournfully contemplates for a few moments the last bed of his departed friend. With eyes cast down, and lip and brow expressive of deep sorrow, he is not surely far removed from his white brother in performing this last not unholy office. Mourners not nearly related to the deceased merely cast a glance towards the covered body, and give place to others.
As soon as these simple rites are performed, the men, not hastily and not without respect to the dead, fill in the grave with earth, using their hands, and sometimes a stone tomahawk. They stop now and again, and trample the earth, and when the work is finally accomplished the sorcerer cries, "No-gee-mee," "That is enough."
This voice is the signal to the women, whose wild music is at once stilled—the dogs are let loose, and the members of the tribe are again in motion, and mingle with one another as before. A few women assemble around the widow, minister to her wants, and attempt to console her.
The grave is finally completed by raising over it a mound of earth, which is generally twelve or eighteen inches in height, and about nine yards in length, and six yards in width. If the surface of the ground is level, a gutter is made to ​carry off the rain-water. The grass and weeds for a small space around the grave are cut with a tomahawk and removed, the roots burnt off, and the place is made smooth, and swept. Boughs of trees are placed around it as a fence, a fire is made at the eastern end of the grave, and the tribe then desert the spot.
They desert the spot because they say they believe that the wild black who has taken the kidney-fat of the deceased, or the spirit which has destroyed him, will wander about the site of the old encampment. This is the reason they give for keeping away from the grave; but it is probable that the strong human instinct which leads men to refrain from amusements, cheerful talk, and the common acts of life in the vicinity of tombs and burial places, and the superstitions which are interwoven with all our thoughts of death, rather than any dread of wicked spirits, are the causes which lead them to abandon the sepulchre. No thought of danger nor dread of ghosts deters the widow from performing her duties if the performance of them be practicable. If the new encampment is within any reasonable distance of the grave, she visits it every night before sunset and every morning before sunrise, and remakes the fire, and sweeps the ground, and sits by the lonely bed of her deceased husband, sometimes in silent sorrow, sometimes wailing or singing a dirge as she wanders slowly through the forest. Watching her figure, white with the ashes which cover her wounds, and feeble from torture, we see a picture of real distress which is far more affecting in its simplicity than the more elaborate mourning which civilization requires of one bereaved. The fire at the grave is usually kept burning for about ten days.
If the deceased had in his life performed any remarkable feats, or rendered himself notorious as a great hunter, or as a wise counsellor, the sorcerer would have made a great speech on the occasion of the burial. Sitting cross-legged at the side of the grave, and sometimes lying on his stomach with his head a little raised, and sometimes with ear bent down, as if listening to the words of the deceased, he would have alternately praised him as a valiant man, or a good hunter, or as wise and skilful in deliberation or debate, and then listened for his ​replies. The sorcerer would have told the people that as their deceased brother had killed many wild blackfellows, so, in justice, should many die for him, and that the dead man had promised that if his murder should be sufficiently avenged his spirit would not haunt the tribe, nor cause them fear, nor mislead them into wrong tracks, nor bring sickness amongst them, nor make loud noises in the night. Such a speech would have nerved the arms of the young men, and the strongest exertions would have been used to kill many wild blackfellows. The women would have urged speed, and the young children would have given the men strength by their tears and their alarm; because all believe that if a dead man's wrongs be not avenged, his spirit will return and cause calamity to the whole tribe of which he was a member.
If the death of a black occur after sunset, when there is not time to use all the proper ceremonials in the light of day, the body is left in the place where the spirit fled; and the nearest of kin—male and female—sit by the side of it during the long hours of night. Two fires are made, one at the east side of the corpse, and one at the west; and the male watches the east fire, and the female the west. Not until the glare of the morning light has turned the green tree-tops to gold does the camp move or the ceremonials begin.
On the occurrence of the death of a Goulburn black, on the south bank of the River Yarra, a circumstance attending the last rites baffled the ingenuity of the sorcerers not a little. After digging the small trench around the body, no aperture was found, neither in the trench nor in the space between that and the corpse, and the sorcerers and the mourners were perplexed and uneasy. But the wise men were troubled but for a short time. If there was not the ordinary manifestation, it was a sign that they were to look for another; and one sorcerer lying on his stomach spoke to the deceased, and the other sitting by his side received the precious messages which the dead man told. The sorcerer, thus informed, rose after the lapse of a quarter of an hour, and delivered his speech. He told the credulous mourners that the dead man had given instructions as to the way which they should go to find the wild black who had taken his kidney-fat; and the people were satisfied.
Sometimes a black, when he knows that he is dying, will save trouble by naming the tribe to whose wicked arts he has become a victim. Gen-nin—well known in Melbourne many years ago, and called by the whites "Jack Weatherly"—was bitten by a snake, and all the usual remedies failing, and Gen-nin knowing that his end had come, told his friends that a man of a tribe living in the north, whose country he described minutely, had entered the snake and taken his kidney-fat; and he gave sufficient information to lead to warfare, if not to the avenging, by the murder of the right man, of his blood.
In some cases a strong and often successful effort is made to screen the real offender where injury is inflicted on a black. At the gathering of three tribes on the banks of the River King, and during a fight which occurred as the result of the meeting, one black belonging to the Ovens River tribe was pierced through the lungs by a spear. Before he died he screened the tribe he had been fighting with by declaring that a wild Murray black had directed the spear, and that the black who hurled it had nothing to do with the result.
​When a woman or a child dies, none but the bereaved exhibit sorrow. Ceremonies there are none. A grave is dug, and the body is buried, and one might suppose that the deceased was uncared for but for the fire which is lit near the tomb. In burying a young girl, they raise a tumulus, and make a fire on the top of it.
Some tribes inhabiting the country to the north and north-east are said to be more than ordinarily scrupulous in interring the dead. If practicable, they will bury the corpse near the spot where, as a child, it first drew breath. A mother will carry a dead infant for weeks, in the hope of being able to bury it near the place where it was born; and a dead man will be conveyed a long distance, in order that the last rites may be performed in a manner satisfactory to the tribe.
When a man is killed in a fight, the tribes enquire whether or not the slain was N'uther jum-buk—sulky or sullen. If violent or mad, N'ya-arunning, or vicious, Karndooith—that is to say, if he pursued his enemy with malignity, and not in the calm manner of a man seeking merely for victory, but rather with savage bloodthirstiness—he would be held to be unworthy of decent burial. He would be left to chance mutilation and decay in the place where he fell. If he were the aggressor, and suffered death, the rites would not be performed. But if the victim acted merely in self-defence, his body would be burned, and his bones gathered together, and placed with decent care in the hollow branch of a tree.
The tribes holding country on the Delatite River, Ovens River, Broken River, and King River, appear to have burned the bodies of those who had been married; and a man killed accidentally was thought to deserve more than common care in regard to the disposal of his body. His bones were collected and placed in a hollow tree. The bodies of dead children were, in most cases, also placed in the hollow branches of trees. In thus disposing of the body of a child, there was neither negligence nor indecent haste. The hollow branch ​was cleared of rotten wood, and well swept. The bottom was lined with leaves and small twigs, well beaten down with a stiff piece of bark. Over those was placed a piece of bark, cut neatly, so as to fit the aperture. The body was placed in a rude bark coffin. This was made by peeling the bark off a sapling, which formed a sort of tube, in which the deceased child could be securely encased.
The coffin was placed in the hollow, twigs and leaves thrust in between the coffin and the sides of the hollow branch, more leaves and twigs over the top, and, finally, a lid of bark so adjusted as to make a very close covering, almost impervious to rain.
The manner of burning the dead is simple enough. The men gather dry branches, dry logs, and dry brushwood, and raise a pile about three feet in height, three feet in width, and six or seven feet in length. The woods are selected of those kinds which not only ignite easily, but which will continue to burn without attention until quite consumed. When the pile is ready—when it is of the proper height, and every cranny has been stuffed with dry leaves and brushwood—two blacks place the dead body on a rude hurdle made of branches, and carry it to the pile. Without touching any part of it, they gently and carefully slide it on to the heap, where it is laid in a becoming attitude. Preceding the carriers are three or four aged blacks, who, with their spears raised, walk solemnly and silently. Throughout the proceedings no word is spoken. Green boughs and bark are laid over the body, and the pile is built to a height of five feet or more. While the men are busy building the pile, there may be seen, about thirty yards off, a black woman sitting by a very small fire. The smoke is barely perceptible. She is silent and mournful, and gazes now and again at the pile. At the right time, an older woman goes to the fire, and takes a lighted stick. Thereupon the younger female weeps passionately, but never speaks. The old woman says nothing, but slowly takes her way to the heap of brushwood, and lights it. In a moment the whole is in a blaze; and all the men at once return to the encampment. Thus silently do they complete their part of the duty. After lighting the pile, the old woman returns to the younger, who sits by the fire. The elder is really, or affects to be, in great grief, and the two mourn together and weep, and wait until the body is entirely consumed.
The Goulburn blacks made graves altogether different from those of the Yarra or Western Port tribes. For the burial of the body of a deceased warrior they dug a grave about five feet in depth, and from the bottom of it they made an excavation in a horizontal direction, about three feet in length and two feet six inches in height. A bed composed of leaves and small twigs was made in the cave thus formed, and the body was placed on it, and the spaces between it and the sides packed with leaves and twigs. The mouth of the cave was closed with a door, formed of a thick piece of bark, and was fastened securely by stakes driven into the ground. The grave was then filled in with earth. At the end of the grave most remote from the body, and at right-angles to it, was raised a low tumulus in the shape of a shield (Gee-am).
​The Barrabool blacks generally stuck a fighting-stick (Worra-worra) at the eastern end of the grave of a young man.
Mr. Daniel Bunce, an intelligent observer, and a gentleman well acquainted with the habits of the blacks, says that no tribe that he has ever met with believe in the possibility of a man dying a natural death. If a man is taken ill, it is at once assumed that some member of a hostile tribe has stolen some of his hair. This is quite enough to cause serious illness. If the man continues sick and gets worse, it is assumed that the hair has been burnt by his enemy. Such an act, they say, is sufficient to imperil his life. If the man dies, it is assumed that the thief has choked his victim and taken away his kidney-fat. When the grave is being dug, one or more of the older men—generally doctors or conjurors (Buk-na-look)—stand by and attentively watch the laborers; and if an insect is thrown out of the ground, these old men observe the direction which it takes, and having determined the line, two of the young men, relations of the deceased, are despatched in the path indicated, with instructions to kill the first native they meet, who they are assured and believe is the person directly chargeable with the crime of causing the death of their relative.
Mr. John Green says that the men of the Yarra tribe firmly believe that no one ever dies a natural death. A man or a woman dies because of the wicked arts practised by some member of a hostile tribe; and they discover the direction in which to search for the slayer by the movements of a lizard which is seen immediately after the corpse is interred.
There are several methods of ascertaining the direction in which the avengers must go for the purpose of finding the wicked person who has compassed the death of an Aboriginal. Mr. F. M. Hughan, who is competent to speak of the habits of the Aborigines of the Lower Murray, thus describes one very curious ceremony which he himself observed in 1851. On the death of an aged headman of a tribe, there gathered together near the grave very many mourners. The women, as is customary, burnt themselves with fire-sticks, and howled dismally; and all the proper rites having been performed around the grave, which was dug in a sandhill having a gentle slope towards the bank of the Tarn Creek, a mound was finally raised and smoothly coated with wet clay. Around the mound a circle of spears was formed, and by each spear sat a warrior. Another set of less prominent men sat in a circle, each by his spear. Around these, and at a little distance, and sitting further apart, the women formed an outer circle. Not a sound was heard from the mourners. Sadly and patiently they awaited an event which was to be caused by the fierce sun overhead. The heat was oppressive, but no murmur arose in the circles. At length the clay which covered the grave cracked. The old men drew nigh, and having ascertained the direction of the first maiu fissure in the drying clay, they indicated the path which the warriors were to take in order to find the person who had practised sorcery on their deceased relative. There, as elsewhere, it was the duty of the avengers to bring back the kidney-fat of the first man of another tribe whom they might meet.
​Mr. Stanbridge, writing of the natives of the central part of Victoria, says that "when a person dies of a loathsome disease, the body is burned; while that of a young person, whose death is attributable to a different cause, is put into a tree to decay. The bones are afterwards collected and buried, the mother sometimes securing the small bones of the legs, to wear round her neck as a memorial. Persons of matured life, especially old men and doctors, are buried with much ceremony. The grave is made in a picturesque spot, to which the body is borne by the relatives; and with it are interred the weapons and other articles belonging to the deceased. The grass is cleared away around the grave for about a yard at each side, and eight yards at each end, in the form of a canoe, and the ground carefully swept daily by the female relatives; and for a time a small fire is made every night at the foot of the grave. If the person were much respected, a little covering of boughs or bark upon four supports is placed over it, and the canoe-shaped space neatly fenced with stakes." Mr. Stanbridge adds that they have the same belief in sorcery as in other parts, and that they select men to avenge the death, who go forth and kill the first persons they meet, whether men, women, or children; and the more lives that are sacrificed, the greater is the honor to the dead. When a death occurs, the women weep and lament, and tear the skin of their temples with their nails. The parents of the deceased lacerate themselves fearfully, especially if he be an only son. The father beats and cuts his head with his tomahawk, and groans bitterly; and the mother sits by the fire and burns her breast and abdomen with a fire-stick until she wails with pain. This continues for hours daily, until the time of lamentation is completed. Sometimes the burns are so severe as to cause death. The relatives of the deceased cover their heads and the upper part of their faces with white clay, which is worn during the time of mourning, and widows in some cases have the hair first taken off with a little fire-stick, by the doctor or priest, before they assume this badge of woe. The dead are rarely spoken of, and never by name. To mention the name would excite the malignity of Couit-gil, the spirit of the departed, which hovers over the earth for a time, and finally goes towards the setting sun.
The following account of the burial ceremonies of the tribes living near the mouth of the River Murray is compiled from a report written by the Rev. Geo. Taplin. The report was published in the South Australian Register:—
The Narrinyeri, inhabiting the Lakes and the Lower Murray, believe, when a death occurs, that sorcery has caused it. When a man dies, his nearest relative sleeps with his head on the corpse, and dreams a dream and discovers the name of the sorcerer who has caused the death of his friend. When the body is being carried to the grave, the male members of the tribe gather around it, and they call out the names of those who they think may have practised sorcery, watching the dead body all the time. If it moves when a name is mentioned, then they know on whom to be avenged. As a rule, the body stirs not until the dreamer tells the name of the sorcerer of whom he has dreamt. At that sound the bearers bend forward towards the dreamer, believing, and making others believe, that the impulse is given by the corpse; and thereupon the tribe is satisfied that the murderer is discovered. The deceased, lying on a ​bier, is placed over a slow fire for a day or longer, and when the skin blisters it is removed. All the apertures of the body are sewn up, and it is rubbed with grease and red-ochre. Finally, it is set up naked on a stage, formed of branches and boughs of trees, and protected by a covering of branches. A small fire is lighted under it, which is kept up by the attendants until it is dry; and finally it is wrapped up in mats and placed in a wurley. The friends of the deceased, both male and female, lament and wail during the performance of these rites. They cut off their hair; they smear their faces with fat and pounded charcoal; they beat and cut themselves; and in other ways give expression to their great grief. Not one is indifferent. Any want of proper feeling would expose a native to the suspicion of sorcery, and might cause his life to be forfeited. While the body is drying, the relatives live, eat, drink, and sleep under the putrefying mass, and the females weep continuously, and, if they can, copiously. One always stands weeping in front of the corpse during the process of drying.
The dead body, all anointed with red-ochre and raised in a sitting posture; the smoke now partially hiding it and now sweeping behind it and spreading in thin wreaths amongst the boughs; the old men moving their long wands, on which they have tied bunches of feathers, in order to paint the body with ochre; the patient grief-stricken groups standing by; the weeping and disordered females—together make up a picture which harmonises with the untilled branch-strewn ground, the gaunt grey limbs of the sparsely-foliaged trees, and the somewhat harsh lights and shadows of an Australian forest.
When any one leaves the wurley for a few days, he is expected, on his return, to place himself in front of the body and to weep and lament. Not until the sorcerer is destroyed, or other expiatory sacrifice made, is the spirit of the dead man appeased. If the person named by the dreamer belongs to some tribe of the Narrinyeri, a difficulty arises. They may not desire to kill the sorcerer. Under such circumstances, they despatch messengers, in order to ascertain the temper of the friends and relatives of the sorcerer. Probably the negotiations result in the injured tribe formally cursing the slayer of their friend, and all his people. If this is done, arrangements are made for a fight, and the hostile tribes meet without delay. The men of the tribe to which the dead man belonged commence to weep and lament as soon as they see their foes. Their opponents mock and deride them, and some of them dance wild dances, flourishing their spears the while. They shout, they laugh wildly, and take all means known to them to provoke a fight. If they have long unsettled disputes between them, in addition to the immediate quarrel, they fight somewhat savagely, and one or two may perchance be killed, and the like number severely wounded; but if they are met merely to "give satisfaction" for the injury done to the dead man, the fight is interrupted, after a few spears are thrown, by some old man, who declares that enough has been done. If the old men on both sides agree, the hostile tribes mingle on friendly terms, and there is an end of the business. The death is avenged.
It is usual to preserve the hair of a dead man. It is spun into a cord and fastened around the head of a warrior. Wearing it, he sees clearly, is more active, and can parry with his shield or avoid the spears of his foes in a fight.
​The funeral rites—as observed by the people of the Encounter Bay tribe, in South Australia—are thus described by Mr. H. E. Meyer:—
"Children still-born, or that have been put to death immediately after birth, are burned. If a child dies a natural death, it is carefully packed up, and the mother or grandmother carries it about with her for several months, or a year; after which it is exposed upon a tree until the bones are completely cleaned, after which they are buried. Young and middle-aged persons are buried in the following manner:—As soon as the person is dead, the knees are drawn up towards the head, and the hands placed between the thighs. Two fires are kindled, and the corpse placed between, so as to receive the heat of the fires and of the sun. After a few days the skin becomes loose, and is taken off. Such a corpse is then called Grinkari. This custom may explain why this name has been applied to Europeans, from the resemblance between their color and that of the native corpse after the skin has been removed. After this all the openings of the body are sewn up, and the whole surface rubbed with grease and red-ochre. Thus prepared, the corpse is placed upon a hut so arranged that the head and arms can be tied. It is then placed with the face to the east, and the arms extended, and a fire is kept constantly beneath. It remains thus until quite dry, when it is taken by the relations and packed up in mats, and then carried from one place to another—the scenes of his former life. After having been thus carried about for several months, it is placed upon a platform of sticks, and left until completely decayed. The head is then taken by the next of kin, and serves him for a drinking vessel; and now his name may be mentioned, which if done before would highly offend his relations, and is sometimes the cause of a war. This may be the reason of there being several names for the same thing. Thus, if a man has the name Ngnke, which signifies water, the whole tribe must use some other word to express water for a considerable time after his death. If a man is killed in battle, or dies in consequence of a wound, he is supposed to have been charmed with the plongge. And, in addition to the above-mentioned ceremonies, they hold a kind of inquest over the corpse, to ascertain to whom he owes his death. One of the nearest relations sleeps with his head resting upon the corpse until he dreams of the guilty person. As soon as this is ascertained, which is generally after the first or second night, he orders wood to be brought to make a kind of bier, upon which the corpse is placed. Several men then take the bier upon their shoulders, and the dreamer—striking upon the breast of the corpse—asks, 'Who charmed you?' He then mentions the name of some person. All remain quiet. After he has asked this question many times, and mentioned several names, he mentions the name of the person he saw in his dream. The bearers then immediately begin running, as if mad, pretending that the corpse has moved itself. The corpse is then erected as above described, and all the friendly tribes come to lament. The nearest relations cut off their hair and blacken their faces, and the old women put human excrement on their heads—the sign of the deepest mourning. If the supposed guilty one should come to the lamentation, the dreamer looks narrowly to his countenance, and if he does not shed tears, is the more convinced of his guilt, and considers it now his duty to avenge his relation's death. The person who sews up the apertures ​of the corpse runs some risk if he does not provide himself with good string; as, if the string should break, it is attributed to the displeasure of the deceased, who is supposed to make known in this manner that he has been charmed by him: also if the small quill used as a needle should not be sufficiently sharp to penetrate the flesh easily, the slightest movement caused by pressing the blunt point into the flesh is supposed to be spontaneous motion of the corpse, and to indicate that the sewer is the guilty person. Rather aged persons are not treated with all the ceremonies above mentioned, but are merely wrapped up in mats and placed upon an elevated platform, formed of sticks and branches, supported by a tree and two posts, and, after the flesh has decayed, the bones are burned. The very old are buried immediately after death."
In these observances the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay tribe appear to transgress the rule which forbids the touching by the naked hands of a dead body. The above is given in Mr. Meyer's own language. It is undoubtedly an accurate statement, and serves to show that no particular description of burial ceremonies can be held applicable to all tribes, or even to any one tribe if the age, character, or position of the deceased was such as to procure for him more than ordinary respect. It is probable, however, that the customs of any one tribe were rarely departed from without some strong and sufficient reason, even when the most distinguished amongst them was consigned to his final resting-place.
Mr. Charles Wilhelmi gives the following account of the practices of the Aborigines of the Port Lincoln district, South Australia:—
"Although, on the one side, they possess a fierce and hostile spirit, still, on the other, it must be observed that they are capable of the more noble feelings of pity and compassion. This is called forth by a dangerous wound, as also by a severe sickness, but still clearer is it observed at and after the death of a friend. On such occasions they are accustomed, and particularly the female sex, to assemble and to weep bitterly. The loud lamentations to which they give vent upon the death of a relative or friend may perhaps be a custom inherited from their forefathers, for they always weep together and at the same time. They also employ foreign means to produce tears. They rub the eyes and scratch the nose, if their own frame of mind should not be sufficiently sorrowful, or if the example of others should fail to produce tears. Their weeping and groans at the commencement of a lamentation seem to be somewhat formal and forced, and thus the suspicion arises that they seem more sorrowful than is warranted by their true feelings. Nevertheless, the Rev. Mr. Shurmann believes that the Aborigines feel deeply and mourn heartily the death of a friend. One of them is accustomed to break out suddenly into a long-protracted plaintive tone, and gradually his example is followed by the others. After this lamentation, a profound silence is observed, and in truth their behaviour is such as belongs to persons oppressed by great grief. For years after the death of a friend on no occasion whatever do they pronounce his name. This, as one might suppose, does not proceed from superstition, but from the simple reason that they do not wish again to awake their slumbering feelings, or, to use their own expression, that they do not wish to weep too much. ​Should it be absolutely necessary to indicate a deceased person, it is done in the following manner:—I am a widow—I am fatherless, brotherless, or the like, as the case may be, instead of saying my husband, my father, or my brother is dead. The last ground on which Mr. Shurmann bases the sincerity of their grief is that they risk their lives to revenge their deceased friend, if suspecting his death to have been caused by foul means.
"Although at the interment of the dead certain rites and customs are generally observed, these are at times dispensed with, as was instanced in the case of an old man. After having dug a hole five feet deep and four feet long, and spread some dry grass in the bottom, they lowered the corpse into it, with the legs bent upwards, as the hole was too short to receive it in its proper position. [This is surely a mistake. The dead bodies of the natives are not laid at full length.] The head, as is invariably done, was placed at the west end, from the notion that the departed souls all reside in an island situated eastward. The body was then covered with a kangaroo skin, and sticks having been driven immediately above it lengthwise into the sides of the grave, leaving a vacant space above it, the whole was then filled up with earth. As the last of this simple proceeding, some branches or bushes were collected around the grave, with the view, as I should think, of preventing stray cattle and horses from trampling upon it. In the immediate neighbourhood only of European settlements, where they can obtain the necessary tools, are they able to dig such deep graves. Further up in the interior, where they are confined to the yam-sticks for the operation of digging, the graves are made only sufficiently deep to admit the body, the sticks being driven in immediately above it. This custom is always observed, very probably in order to prevent the wild dogs from scraping up the body."
These observations appear to refer to the practices of blacks who have been contaminated by intercourse with the lower class of whites. They are in other respects not in accord with what is known of the wild Aborigines. A black-fellow with a yam-stick can dig out a wombat, and two or three or four would quickly dig a grave four or five feet in depth, if they considered it proper to make it of that depth. Mr. Wilhelmi's observations, however, are not without value.
Capt. Grey very graphically describes the burial ceremonies of the natives of Perth, in Western Australia:—
"Yen-na and Warrup, the brothers-in-law of Mulligo, were digging his grave, which, as usual, extended due east and west; the Perth boyl-ya, Weeban by name, who, being a relation of the deceased, could of course have had no hand in occasioning his death, superintended the operations. They commenced by digging with their sticks and hands several holes in a straight line, and as deep as they could; they then united them and threw out the earth from the bottom of the pit thus made. All the white sand was thrown carefully into two heaps, nearly in the form of a European grave, and these heaps were situated one at the head and the other at the foot of the hole they, were digging, whilst the dirty colored sand was thrown into two other heaps, one on each side. The grave was very narrow, only just wide enough to admit the body of the deceased. Old ​Weeban paid the greatest possible attention to see that the east and west direction of the grave was preserved, and if the least deviation from this line occurred in the heaps of sand, either at the head or foot, he made some of the natives rectify it by sweeping the sand into its proper form with boughs of trees. . . . . . . . . . . . During the process of digging, an insect having been thrown up, its motions were watched with the most intense interest, and as this little insect thought proper to crawl off in the direction of Guildford, an additional proof was furnished to the natives of the guilt of the boyl-yas of that place. When the grave was completed, they set fire to some dried leaves and twigs, then, throwing them in, they soon had a large blaze in it; during this part of the ceremony, old Weeban knelt on the ground at the foot of the grave, with his back turned towards the east, and his head bowed to the earth, his whole attitude denoting the most profound attention; the duty he had now to perform was a most important one, being no less than to discover in which direction the boyl-yas, when drawn out of the earth by the fire, would take flight. Their departure was not audible to common ears, or visible to the eyes of ordinary mortals, but his power of boyl-yas gaduk enabled him to distinguish these sights and sounds which were invisible and inaudible to the bystanders. The fire roared for some time loudly in the grave, and every eye rested anxiously on old Weeban; the hollow, almost mysterious, sound of the flames as they rose from the narrow aperture evidently had a powerful effect upon the superstitious fears of the natives, and when he suddenly raised his meerro [nomerra— throwing-stick], and then let it fall over his shoulder in a due east direction (the direction of Guildford), a grim smile of satisfaction passed over the countenances of the young men, who now knew in what direction to avenge the foul witchcraft which they felt assured had brought about the death of their brother-in-law. The next part of their proceedings was to take the body of Mulligo from the females: they raised it in a cloak; his old mother made no effort to prevent its being removed, but passionately and fervently kissed the cold, rigid lips which she could never press to hers again. The body was then lowered into the grave, and seated upon a bed of leaves, which had been laid there directly the fire was extinguished, the face being, according to custom, turned towards the east. The women still remained grouped together, sobbing forth their mournful songs, whilst the men placed small green boughs upon the body, until they had more than half filled up the grave with them; cross pieces of wood, of considerable size, were then fixed in the opposite sides of the grave, green boughs placed on these, and the earth from the two side heaps thrown in until the grave was completed, which then, owing to the heaps at the head and foot, presented the appearance of three graves, nearly similar in size and form, lying in a due east and west direction. The men having now completed their task, the women came with bundles of black-boy tops which they had gathered, and laid these down on the central heap, so as to give it a green and pleasing appearance; they placed neither meerro nor spear on the grave, but whilst they were filling in the earth, old Weeban and another native sat on their hams at the head of it, facing the one to the north and the other to the south, their foreheads leaning on their clasped ​hands, which rested on one end of a meerro, whilst the other was placed on the ground."
The following suggestive and highly interesting account of the ceremonies of the blacks of the Vasse River, in Western Australia, as described by Mr. Bussel in Capt. Grey's work, is valuable:—
"The funeral is a wild and fearful ceremony. Before I had finished in the stockyard, the dead man was already removed, and on its way to the place of interment, about a quarter of a mile from the place where the death took place, and I left our house, entirely guided by the shrill wailing of the female natives, as they followed, mourning, after the two men who bore the body in their arms. The dirge, as distance blended all the voices, was very plaintive—even musical; nor did the diminution of distance destroy the harmony entirely. Some of the chants were really beautiful, but rendered perhaps too harsh for our ears, in actual contact; for as I joined myself to the procession, and became susceptible of the trembling cadence of each separate performer—the human voice in every key which the extremes of youth and age might produce—there was a sensation effected which I cannot well describe—a terrible jarring of the brain. The fact that the involuntary tears rolled down the cheeks of those infants who sat passively on their mothers' shoulders, not appreciating the cause of lament, but merely as listeners, must prove that these sounds are calculated to affect the nervous system powerfully. The procession moved slowly on, and at length arrived at the place fixed upon for the burial. There had been a short silence previous to coming thus far, as if to give the voice a rest; for as the body touched the ground, and the bearers stood erect and silent, a piercing shriek was given, and as this died away into a chant, some of the elder women lacerated their scalps with sharp bones, until the blood ran down their furrowed faces in actual streams. The eldest of the bearers then stepped forward and proceeded to dig the grave. I offered to get a spade, but they would not have it; the digging-stick was the proper tool, which they used with greater despatch than from its imperfect nature could have been expected at first sight. The earth, being loosened with this implement, was then thrown out with the hands with great dexterity, in complete showers, so as to form, in the same line with the grave, at both ends, two elongated banks, the sand composing them so lightly hurled as to seem almost like drift sand on the sea-shore. In the throw, if perchance the right limit was out-stepped, the proper form was retained by sweeping. The digging, notwithstanding the art displayed, was very tedious; they all sat in silence, and there were no chants to understand, or to fancy one understood, or perhaps to make meanings to. But at length the grave was finished, and they then threw some dry leaves into it, and setting fire to them, while the blaze was rising up, every one present struck repeatedly a bundle of spears with the mearu, which they held with the butts downwards, making a rattling noise; then, when the fire had burnt out, they placed the corpse beside the grave, and gashed their thighs, and at the flowing of the blood they all said, 'I have brought blood,' and then stamped the foot forcibly on the ground, sprinkling the blood around them; then, wiping the wounds with a wisp of leaves, they threw it, bloody as it was, on the dead man; then a loud scream ​ensued, and they lowered the body into the grave, resting on the back, with the soles of the feet on the ground and the knees bent; they filled the grave with soft brushwood, and piled logs on this to a considerable height, being very careful all the time to prevent any of the soil from falling into the apertures; they then constructed a hut over the wood-stack, and one of the male relations got into it and said, 'Mya balung einya ngin-na'—('I sit in his house'). One of the women then dropped a few live coals at his feet, and having stuck his dismantled meerro at the end of one of the mounds, they left the place, retiring in a contrary direction from that in which they came, chanting."
At King George's Sound the body is laid in a short, narrow, and rather shallow grave. It is covered with a cloak, and the knees are bent and the arms crossed. At the bottom of the grave is placed a sheet of bark, over which are strewn leaves and branches. Leaves and green twigs are heaped on the body also, and the hole is then filled with earth. Green boughs are placed over the grave, and the weapons of the deceased are laid likewise on it. The mourners carve circles on the trees that grow near, at a height of six or seven feet from the ground; and, lastly, make a small fire in front. Their mourning is black or white, laid on in blotches across the forehead, round the temples, and down the cheek-bones, and is worn for a considerable time. They scratch the cheeks to produce tears.—(Mr. Scott Nind.)
Capt. Grey observes that the natives of many parts of Australia, when at a funeral, cut off portions of their beards, and singeing these, throw them upon the dead body. In some instances they cut off the beard of the dead body, and, burning it, rub themselves and the body with the singed portions of it.
All that relates to the customs of the natives of Cooper's Creek is of more than common interest, because they appear to be in many respects inferior to those tribes living in parts where food is more abundant and of better quality than that obtainable in any part of the great depression towards which Cooper's Creek trends; and I was glad to receive through Mr. A. W. Howitt the following paper from Senior Constable James:—
"During a residence of about eight years in that portion of South Australia that is inhabited by the Dieyerie tribe of blacks (Cooper's Creek), I had only two opportunities of observing the full funeral rites performed by them. As both were precisely similar, I will only describe one. The deceased was an old man who had been sick for a long time, and there was a considerable number of the tribe assembled, having probably come to be present at the obsequies. As soon as the breath was out of the body, all the women and children left the wurleys, and, sitting down about fifty yards off, the women set up a great wailing, and covered their heads and smeared their bodies with pipeclay. Pipeclay on the head of a black of this tribe always denotes that the wearer is lamenting the death of one of their number. The wailing was kept up for hours; it was a kind of monotonous howl, in which a sort of time was kept, and which now and again would almost altogether subside; then suddenly break out afresh as loud and as vehement as ever. I may add that tears often course down the cheeks of the women when they are lamenting the dead thus, but there appears to be little grief in reality, for, if spoken to, they will at once stop lamenting, and answer ​just as at any other time, the features and voice assuming the ordinary expression and tone. Directly the women left the camp, the men gathered round the dead man and pulled his wurley down, so that they could get close around the body. An old man then advanced, and, with a green bough of gum in each hand, stood astride over the body, facing the head, and, waving the boughs, began to utter a sort of chant (keeping time with the boughs) over the body; at times he would make a sudden pause, and then call the deceased sharply by name; again pausing, as if for a reply. The chant would then go on again in precisely the same manner as before, always ending with the abrupt pause and sharp call on the dead man by his name. His incantation, or whatever it was, was kept up for fully two hours, the rest of the men standing silent around the while; the old man at length appeared to have satisfied himself that he could not cause the dead man to answer, and so finished his conjuration; and saying something in his own language to the other men around, they all proceeded to put pipeclay on their heads and little spots of alternate red and white all over their bodies. This done, some of the younger men were sent off to dig a grave, and the elder ones proceeded to tie the great toes of the body together very securely, with strong, stout string, and then tied both the thumbs together behind the back, the body being turned face downwards whilst the latter operation was going on. From the manner in which the strings were tightened and the care taken over that part of the business, one would think that even a strong, healthy living man could not break or rise from such bonds. In reply to me, they said the tying was to prevent him from 'walking.' The tying of the body being completed, and the grave ready, eight men knelt down, four on each side of the body, and, taking it up, placed it on their heads, and thus carried it to the grave, followed by the rest of the men in a disorderly, straggling crowd. The grave was about a quarter of a mile from the camp. It was about four feet deep, and into this two men jumped and assisted the bearers to place the body; then, getting out of the grave, aided those present in bringing and laying lengthwise on the body a large quantity of dead wood, filling up the grave, and piling it above to the height of about four feet and around the ends and sides of the grave, forming thus a pile of about twelve feet in diameter, being round on the top. They said that wood was used instead of earth to prevent Kintala (native dog or dingo) from scratching into the grave and eating the body. The grave was then swept carefully all around so as to obliterate the traces of footsteps, and every one at once returned to the camp, and proceeded to re-erect the wurleys a short distance from the camp in which the death had taken place, as this tribe never again occupies a camp in which a death has occurred. Every night for one moon (four weeks) two old men went to the grave about dusk, and carefully swept all round it; each morning, for the same period, they visited it, to see if there were any tracks of the dead man on the swept space. They told me that if they were to find tracks they would have to remove the body and bury it elsewhere, as the foot-marks would denote that the dead man was 'walking' and discontented with his present grave. For some days after a death the women indulge in an occasional howl of lament. The men never howl or give utterance to grief; merely wearing the pipeclay and ​red-ochre till it rubs off. All who are aware of the death abstain from the mention of the dead man's name. They do not like the conversation to be about a dead man; but if it should take that direction, the dead are not mentioned directly by name. Should a white man offend by doing so, they always tell him 'That one tumble down, no you call im,' which is their method of saying in English 'That man is dead, don't mention his name.' When a death has occurred, messengers are despatched to the various camps of the whole tribe with the intelligence, and the pipeclay mourning is then put on the heads of all, young and old of both sexes, and the wailing is raised by the women just as at the place where the death has taken place; but the absent men do not spot their bodies with red and white; only those who assist personally at the funeral rites do that, asserting that by that means they run no risk of getting sick by contact with the corpse, or, as my informant expressed it, 'You see very good make-im like that; suppose me no make-im, me tumble down too: that one' (indicating the body) 'growl along-a-me.'"
Mr. Samuel Gason, the author of the little work on the manners of the Dieyerie people already referred to, gives the following description of the modes of disposing of the dead. It appears that the fat of the corpse is eaten:—
"When a man, woman, or child dies, no matter from what cause, the big toes of each foot are tied together, and the body enveloped in a net. The grave is dug to about three feet, and the body is carried thither on the heads of three or four men, and on arrival is placed on its back for a few minutes. Then three men kneel down near the grave, while some other natives place the body on the heads of the kneeling men. One of the old men (usually the nearest relative) now takes two light rods, each about three feet long (these are called coonya), and holds one in each hand, standing about two yards from the corpse; then, beating the coonya together, he questions the corpse, in the belief that it can understand him, enquiring how he died, who was the cause of his death, and the name of the man who killed him—as even decease from natural causes they attribute to a charm or spell exercised by some enemy. The men sitting round act as interpreters for the defunct, and, according as the general opinion obtains, give some fictitious name of a native of another tribe. When the old man stops beating the coonya, the men and women commence crying, and the body is removed from the heads of the bearers, and lowered into the grave, into which a native (not related to the deceased) steps, and proceeds to cut off all the fat adhering to the muscles of the face, thighs, arms, and stomach, and passes it round to be swallowed; the reason assigned for this horrible practice being that thus the nearest relatives may forget the departed and not be continually crying. The order in which they partake of their dead relatives is this:—The mother eats of her children; the children eat of their mother. Brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law eat of each other. Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, grandfathers, and grandmothers eat of each other. But the father does not eat of his offspring, or the offspring of the sire. After eating of the dead, the men paint themselves with charcoal and fat, making a black ring round the mouth. This distinguishing mark is called Munamuroomuroo. The women do likewise, besides painting two white stripes on their arms, which marks distinguish those ​who have partaken of the late deceased; the other men smearing themselves all over with white clay, to testify their grief. The grave is covered in with earth, and a large stack of wood placed over it. The first night after the burial the women dance round the grave, crying and screaming incessantly till sunrise, and so continue for a week or more. Should the weather be cold when a native dies, fires are lighted near the grave, so that the deceased may warm himself, and often they place food for him to eat. Invariably, after a death, they shift their camp, and never speak of or refer to the defunct."
In Fraser Island (Great Sandy Island), Queensland, they have strange methods of disposing of the dead. Old men, old women, and young women that are not fat, are rolled in their blankets or rugs, and buried in a grave which is dug to a depth of about four feet. They place a sheet of bark over the corpse, near the surface, to leave room, as they say, for the spirit or ghost (Mothar-mothar) to move about and come up.
When a young man dies, they first skin him, then cut off his flesh, which is placed on their spears to dry; the bones are then taken to pieces, the large ones are cut asunder, and the marrow emptied out. The various parts—skin, flesh, bones, &c.—are finally distributed among the kinsfolks, and carried about by them in their bags and baskets, as charms to ward off evil. When old and stale, they are placed up in trees, on boughs laid across for this purpose. Sometimes they burn the bones of the dead and carry the ashes about with them. Sometimes the dead bodies are placed (whole) in trees. They do not like to speak about the dead; among themselves, it is generally done in a sort of a whisper; and they are firm believers in ghosts.
There is great mourning and crying when a young man dies, and the female relatives cut themselves about in a frightful manner with shells, &c. But there is very little weeping or wailing when a woman or an old man dies.
Capt. Grey, quoting Dr. Duncan, says that when a black of North Australia dies, or is killed, the body is buried in the earth, and at the end of five days it is dug up again, and the bones, &c., are wrapped up in the bark of trees, and these are carried about by the tribe.
At Cygnet Bay, an officer of the Beagle found a skeleton enveloped in three pieces of papyrus bark. All the bones were closely packed together, and the head surmounted the whole.
Comparing the modes of burial as practised by the Aborigines of Australia with those of other uncivilized races, there are so many customs and rites exactly the same, or similar, that we are not entitled to regard the Australian as peculiar in his habits. A stranger who sees a burial of an Australian black is apt to suppose that he has witnessed ceremonies unknown elsewhere. But, separated by wide seas and vast continents, there are other races who follow the like practices, and strangely even those of them which seem, before we reason as to the causes, absurd and inhuman. For instance, the avenging of the deceased man's blood—under the belief that sorcery has caused his death, and that stratagems and subtleties have been used by some enemy—a man of ​another tribe—is known amongst the Ajitas, natives of the Philippine Islands. A dead warrior amongst them cries from his grave for vengeance. His friends arm themselves and disperse through the forests, and kill something—man or beast—in order that the dead may rest in peace. They break little twigs as they pass along as a warning to friendly natives; but if accident brings them near even a friend, then he is regarded as the enemy of the deceased, and must die. The same idea moves the Wanyamuêzi and other African tribes to ascribe the sickness of a man to sorcery.
The placing of the dead body on a bier in the woods is a custom always observed by the natives of the Nine or Savage Islands; by the Tahitans; by the Dyaks of Borneo; by the Araucanians, by the Ahts, and by other tribes of American Indians.
The custom of neglecting the body of a man who has been killed in a quarrel brought on by his own misconduct is found, with some modifications, in many parts of the world. Amongst the Kaffirs, a man who has been killed by order of the king is left to become the prey of wild beasts. A man of the Latooka tribe killed in battle remains unburied on the field to be eaten by hyenas.
The curious method of interring the body in the bed of a running stream is practised by the Obongos of Africa; and the body is placed in the hollow branch of a tree in Central Africa, in New Zealand, and in Borneo. The Ashira tribe, and the Krumen in Africa, and the Kingsmill Islanders, keep a fire burning beside the corpse. The Australian places a bunch of acacia or a throwing-stick at the head of the grave of a warrior, and the Manganja tribe lay a weapon or an implement of some kind on the tomb.
The repugnance which some of the Australians have to touch a dead body is as strong in the Kaffir and the Bechuana.
The Latooka and Camma tribes in Africa, and the New Zealanders, smear their faces and other parts of their bodies with red-ochre and grease and throw wood ashes on their heads when they mourn.
* ↑ In the narrative of the Life and Adventures of William Buckley it is stated that the bones of deceased children were carried about by their mothers in nets made of hair and twisted bark. The nets were tied round their necks by day, and placed under their heads at night; and the bones were invariably affectionately guarded.
* ↑ The blacks on the Bogan River, in New South Wales, bury their dead in cemeteries resembling those of Europeans. The graves are numerous, and the grounds are ornamented, and there are curved walks or tracks through them. On the Lachlan River the graves are marked by high mounds of earth, around which are placed rude seats. On the Murrumbidgee and Murray (north of Victoria) the graves are covered with thatched huts. On the Darling River they raise mounds and cover them with branches of trees, and form a ditch around each mound; and sometimes, for greater security, enclose the mound with a fence of dead limbs of trees and branches. Throughout the continent, however, it is the practice to bury the body near the spot where the death occurred. Oxley gives a description of a grave which he found on his journey. He thinks it was probably that of some person of consideration among the natives. The form of the whole was semicircular. Three rows of seats occupied one half, the grave and the outer row of seats the other; the seats formed segments of circles, fifty, forty-five, and forty feet each, and were formed by the soil being trenched up from between them. The central part of the grave was about five feet high and about nine long, forming an oblong pointed cone. Oxley caused the tomb to be opened, and he found beneath the solid surface of the ground three or four layers of wood lying across the grave, and serving to support the cone of earth above; then several sheets of bark, underneath these dry grass and leaves, and at a depth of four feet was the body. The grave was oval, about four feet in length and from eighteen inches to two feet in width. The feet of the corpse were bent quite up to the head, the arms having been placed between the thighs. The face was downwards, the body lying east and west, with the head to the east. It had been carefully wrapped in a great number of opossum skins, the head bound round with the net usually worn by the natives, and also the girdle. It appeared, after having been enclosed in the skins, to have been placed in a larger net, and then deposited in the manner before mentioned. To the west and north of the grave were two cypress trees, distant between fifty and sixty feet; the sides towards the tomb were barked, and curious characters deeply cut upon them, in a manner which, considering the tools they possess, must have been a work of great labor and time. The drawing in Oxley's work shows the figures. On one tree I think an attempt has been made to represent snakes, and on the other there is probably a copy of the device that the deceased had carved on his shield. Major Mitchell says that on the Bogan, not far from Oxley's table-land, he found the burial ground of Milmeridien, and the natives scarcely lifted their heads as they passed it. It is thus graphically described:—"This burial ground was a fairy-like spot, in the midst of a scrub of drooping acacias. It was an extensive space, laid out in little walks, which were narrow and smooth, as if intended only for 'sprites.' All these ran in gracefully-curved lines, and enclosed the heaving heaps of reddish earth, which contrasted finely with the acacias and dark casuarinas around. Others, gilt with moss, shot far into the recesses of the bush, where slight traces of still more ancient graves proved the antiquity of these simple but touching records of humanity. With all our art we could do no more for the dead than these poor savages had done."—Vol. I., p. 317. At another spot he saw a large lonely hut of peculiar construction; it was closed on every side, the materials consisting of poles and sheets of bark. It stood in the centre of a flat of bare earth of considerable extent, which was enclosed by three small ridges, the surface within the artificial area having been made very level and smooth. The floor of the hut was covered with a bed of rushes, and it was plain it had been recently occupied. A near friend of the deceased had rested hero and watched the grave, in accordance with custom, until the flesh had left the bones. No fire had ever been made in the hut, but fires had been kindled on the heath outside.—Vol. II., p. 71.Near the junction of the Murrumbidgee and the Murray, Major Mitchell found several graves all enclosed in separate parterres of exactly the same remarkable form, consisting of the same kind of double or triple ridges as those first seen in the lower part of the Lachlan. There were three of these parterres all lying due east and west. On one, apparently that most recent, the ashes of a hut still appeared over the grave. On another, which contained two graves (one of a small child), logs of wood mixed with long grass were neatly piled transversely; and in the third, which was so ancient that the enclosing ridges were barely visible, the graves had sunk into a grassy hollow. Major Mitchell learnt from the widow that such tombs were made for men and boys only, not for females, and that the ashes over one of the graves were the remains of a hut which had been burnt and abandoned, after the murder of the person whose body was buried beneath had been avenged by the tribe to whom the brother or relative keeping it company above ground had belonged. — Vol. II., p. 87.Major Mitchell makes the following general observations;—"The graves on these hills [near the junction of the Darling and the Murray] no longer resembled those on the Murrumbidgee and the Murray, but were precisely the same as those we had seen on the Darling, viz., mounds surrounded by and covered with dead branches and pieces of wood. On these lay the same singular casts of the head in white plaster which we had seen only at Fort Bourke. It is indeed curious to observe the different modes of burying adopted by the natives on different rivers. For instance, on the Bogan, they bury in graves covered like our own, and surrounded with curved walks and ornamented ground. On the Lachlan, under lofty mounds of earth, seats being made around. On the Murrumbidgee and Murray the graves are covered with well-thatched huts, containing dried grass for bedding, and enclosed by a parterre of a particular shape, like the inside of a whale-boat; and on the Darling, as above stated, the graves are in mounds, covered with dead branches and limbs of trees, and surrounded by a ditch, which here we found encircled by a fence of dead limbs and branches."—Vol. II., pp. 112-13.The same explorer noticed in one place a large ash-hill (mirrn-yong heap) on whose ample surface the vestiges of a very ancient grave were just visible, the grave having been surrounded by exactly the same kind of ridges which had been observed around the inhabited tomb near the junction of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee.—Vol. II., p. 148.
* ↑ This belief in sorcery is firmly implanted in the minds of all the Aboriginal natives of Australia, and the customs arising out of the belief are various. Mr. Samuel Gason finds a curious form of superstition in the Cooper's Creek district. He says that the natives attribute great power to a bone—Mookooellie-duckana (literally, Mookoo, bone; and duckana, strike); the compound word signifying struck by a bone. As soon as a native becomes at all unwell, fears are entertained that some enemy has used the power of the bone to his injury, and the council of old men assemble to ascertain who is the guilty person. "Should the patient remain a considerable time without a change, or his malady increase, his wife, if he have one—or if he have not, the wife of his nearest relative—is ordered to proceed to the person who is supposed to have caused the sickness. She does so, accompanied by her paramour, and on arrival immediately makes a few presents to the person suspected of her relative's illness, but makes no accusation against him, contenting herself with simply stating that her relative is fallen ill, and is not expected to recover; whereupon he sympathises with her, and expresses a hope that the invalid will soon be well again. He knows, however, perfectly well, though not accused, that he is suspected of having caused the malady; and, on the following morning, acquaints the woman that she can return to her relative, as he would draw all power away from the bone by steeping it in water. Accordingly, the woman carries back the joyful tidings that she has seen the party who has the bone, and he has promised to take all the power out of it. Now, should the invalid happen to die, and be a person of any influence, the man who acknowledged to having the bone is murdered on the first opportunity. Men threaten their wives (should they do anything wrong) with the bone, causing such dread in their wives, that mostly, instead of having a salutary effect, it causes them to hate their husbands. The bone is not an ordinary one, but the small bone of the human leg; and one of every two of the natives is charged with having one in his possession wherever he may go; but, in my own experience, I have never seen more than a dozen, and those at one of their ceremonies; as, for instance, when the whole tribe desire to kill at a distance—say from fifty to one hundred miles—some influential man of another tribe, they order several of the old men to despoil the dead—that is, to take the small leg-bones from many skeletons. Of these, the relics of their own tribe, they take from three to eight, which they wrap in fat and emu feathers; all the most noted men of the tribe taking them and pointing towards the place where their intended victim is supposed to reside, while doing which they curse the man they desire to kill, naming the death they would wish him. All present are bound to secrecy, and the ceremony lasts about an hour. Should they learn, after a few weeks, that the man they destine to destruction is alive and hearty, they account for it by supposing that some one of the tribe of the person cursed had stopped the power of the bone. So strongly are men, women, and children convinced of the power of the bone, that no reasoning can shake their belief." Revenge for the death of a member of a tribe is very deliberately planned. "Should a man of influence and well connected—that is, have numerous relatives—die suddenly, or after a long illness, the tribe believe that he has been killed by some charm. A secret council is held, and some unhappy innocent is accused and condemned, and dealt with by the Pinya. "The armed band [Pinya] entrusted with the office of executing offenders is appointed as follows:—A council is called of all the old men of the tribe; the chief—a native of influence—selecting the men for the pinya, and directing when to proceed on their sanguinary mission. The night prior to starting, the men composing the pinya, at about seven p.m., move out of the camp to a distance of about three hundred yards, where they sit in a circle, sticking their spears in the ground near them. The women form an outer circle round the men, a number of them bearing fire-sticks in their hands. The chief opens the council by asking who caused the death of their friend or relative, in reply to which the others name several natives of their own or neighbouring tribes, each attaching the crime to his bitterest enemy. The chief, perceiving whom the majority would have killed, calls out his name in a loud voice, when each man grasps his spear. The women who have fire-sticks lay them in a row, and, while so placing them, call out the name of some native, till one of them calls that of the man previously condemned, when all the men simultaneously spear the fire-stick of the woman who has named the condemned. Then the leader takes hold of the fire-stick, and, after one of the old men has made a hole a few inches deep in the ground with his hand, places the fire-stick in it, and covers it up, all declaring that they will slay the condemned, and see him buried like that stick. After going through some practices too beastly to narrate, the women return to the camp. The following morning, at sunrise, the pinya attire themselves in a plaited band, painted white (charpoo), and proceed on their journey until within a day's stage of the place where they suppose the man they seek will be found, and remain there during the day in fear they may be observed by some straggling native. At sunset they renew their journey until within a quarter of a mile of their intended victim's camp, when two men are sent out as spies to the camp, to ascertain if he is there, and, if possible, where he sleeps. After staying there about two hours, they report what they have seen and heard. The next thing done is the smearing of the pinya with white clay, so as to distinguish them from the enemy, in case any of the latter should endeavour to escape. They then march towards the camp at a time when they think the inmates are asleep, from about midnight to two a.m.; and, when within one hundred yards of it, divide into two parties—one going round on one side of the camp, and the second round on the other—forming a complete circle to hinder escape. The dogs begin to bark, and the women to whimper, not daring to cry aloud for fear of the pinya, who, as they invest the camp, make a very melancholy grunting noise. Then one or two walk up to the accused, telling him to come out and they will protect him, which he, aware of the custom, does not believe, yet he obeys, as he is powerless to resist. In the meanwhile, boughs are distributed by the pinya to all the men, women, and children, wherewith to make a noise in shaking, so that the friends and relatives of the condemned may not hear his groans while he is being executed. The pinya then kill the victim by spearing him and striking him with the two-handed weapon, avoiding to strike him below the hips, as they believe, were they to injure the legs, they would be unable to return home. The murder being consummated, they wait for daylight, when the young men of the pinya are ordered to lie down. The old men then wash their weapons, and, getting all the gore and flesh adhering to them off, mix it with some water; this agreeable draught being carried round by an old man, who bestows a little upon each young man to swallow, believing that thereby they will be inspired with courage and strength for any pinya they may afterwards join. The fat of the murdered man is cut off and wrapped round the weapons of all the old men, which are then covered with feathers. They then make for home."—The Dieyerie Tribe of Australian Aborigines, by Samuel Gason, Police-Trooper, 1874. Threlkeld mentions a bone—Mur-ro-kun—which is obtained by the Ka-ra-kul, a doctor or conjuror. Three of the doctors sleep on the grave of a recently-interred corpse, and in the night, when the doctors are asleep, the dead person inserts a mysterious bone into each thigh of the three doctors, who do not feel the puncture more than if an ant had stung them. The bones remain in the flesh of the doctors without causing them any inconvenience. When they wish to kill any person, by means which cannot be known, they use the bone in a supernatural manner. The bone enters the body of the victim, and he dies.
* ↑ "The custom among the Australiaus of putting dust or ashes on the head, of shaving the head, of clipping the heard, and of lacerating the body at death or iu sign of mourning, appears very similar to the practices among the Israelites in the time of Moses.—Vide Leviticus xix., 27, 28; Leviticus xxi., 5; Jeremiah xlviii., 37; Ezekiel xxvii., 30, 31, 32; Revelation xviii, 19, &c."—Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, by Edward John Eyre, 1845, vol. II., p. 353.
* ↑ On one occasion when Major Mitchell was near Rodrigo Ponds he heard a female singing. He says, "While I stood near this spot attending the arrival of the party, which was still at some distance, I overheard a female voice singing. The notes were pleasing, and very different from the monotonous strains of the natives in general. . . . . The soft Sounds so expressive of tranquillity and peace were in perfect unison with the scene around." . . . . On approaching the natives, he found that they took no notice of him. One young man continued beating out a skin against a tree without regard to the presence of a stranger; and he discovered long afterwards that the female was singing a funeral dirge. It is usual for the relatives of one deceased to seem inattentive and insensible to whatever people may be doing around them.—Vol. I., pp. 117-18.
* ↑ The late Mr. W. H. Wright made mention of the following incident in a note to me:—"Sometime about 1844-6 I was informed that the tribe of Aborigines living near Wellington Valley were coming—some twenty-five miles—up the Macquarie River on important business. They proceeded by very easy stages—perhaps five miles a day—men, women, and children huddled together—and some of them bore a sort of hand-barrow, or bier, on which a fire was, with much care, kept constantly burning. In this way they proceeded to a grave situated on the Bell River, and there the proceedings terminated, and they dispersed. I saw them en route. An intelligent black, who was my tracker, informed me that their object in proceeding to the grave in question, and of maintaining the fire so vigilantly, was to relieve the widow of the deceased (whose remains were interred in the grave) from the bar to her marriage with another blackfellow. After the performance of certain ceremonies she would be at liberty to marry again—not before."—30th October 1876.
* ↑ The people of the Wimmera follow some remarkable customs:—"In August 1849 a small tribe of blacks was encamped on Pettit's Creek, a branch of the Wimmera, near its sources in the Pyrenees, where one of their number, named 'Georgey,' a remarkably fine young man, and a great favorite with them, was carried off by consumption. Having first asked permission, his people chose an elevated spot within my paddock, and dug a grave, in which, after the bottom had been covered with dry grass, 'Georgey's' remains were placed compactly 'folded' within a good blanket, tied round and across with a woollen comforter, and his pannikin and sundry small articles besides. The grave was closed with a sheet of bark, and the vault so formed covered with the heaped-up soil, and further, a fence was put up to keep the horses off it. In the month of November following a great storm of wind and rain swept through the country, and almost as soon as it had cleared off 'Georgey's' friends again presented themselves and begged for the loan of spade and shovel. In reply to my enquiry why they wanted these, I was told that 'poor fellow "Georgey" was too much cold and wet and miserable where he was buried,' and they wished to remove him. Having exhumed the body, they wrapped an additional blanket and comforter round it, placed it on a bier made of saplings, and carried it across the creek to another spot in the paddock, and placed it in a hollow tree, all the openings in which they carefully stopped with dead sticks, so that no animals could get in. The tree was frequently visited, and swept round about; and the wails of the women used to be heard on these occasions. The remains of the poor fellow remained here until a bush-fire consumed the tree some years afterwards, a heap of ashes and a few calcined bones marking the spot when I revisited it."—W. E. Wright, MS., 30th October 1876.
* ↑ Amongst the Romans it was the next of blood that performed the ceremony of lighting the pile.
* ↑ Since deceased. He was Curator of the Botanical Gardens at Geelong.
* ↑ From information obtained through the Rev. L. Fison.
* ↑ "When an Obongo dies, it is usual to take the body to a hollow tree in the forest, and drop it into the hollow, which is afterwards filled to the top with earth, leaves, and branches. Sometimes, however, they employ a more careful mode of burial. They take the body to some running stream, the course of which has been previously diverted. A deep grave is dug in the bed of the stream, the body placed in it, and covered over carefully. Lastly, the stream is restored to its original course, so that all traces of the grave are soon lost."—The Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. I., p. 540. I have already stated that interring bodies in the beds of running streams is practised by some of the natives of Australia; and when I informed Professor Hearn of this fact, he at once drew my attention to the description of the funeral of Alaric, King of the Goths, as given by Gibbon:—"The ferocious character of the barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero whose valour and fortitude they celebrated with mournful applause. By the labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the secret spot where the remains of Alaric had been deposited was forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work."—Gibbon's Decline and Fall (Dr. W. Smith's edition), vol. IV., p. 112.