Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/475

VIII follows: The mother eats of her children, and the children of their mother; a man eats of his sister's husband, and of his brother's wife; mother's brothers, mother's sisters, sister's children, mother's parents, or daughter's children are also eaten of; but the father does not eat of his children, nor the children of their sire. The relations eat of the fat in order that they may be no longer sad. All those who eat of the deceased are decked with the Kuya-marra plant.

Even in cases where a man has killed one of another tribe, he will carefully preserve the fat for the purpose of protecting himself against a blood-feud. When the kindred of the dead man call him to account for the death, he gives them the fat to eat, and it has the effect that they become pacified, and even feel grateful to him for it, so that they need no longer feel sad or weep.

When the grave is filled in, a large stack of wood is placed on it, and this practice seems to be universal in the country of the Barcoo and Diamantina deltas, where I observed some striking instances of it. The most striking case was to the south of Sturt's Stony Desert, in the country of the Ngurawola tribe; and I was told that the group of several graves, each with a great pile of wood on it, contained men who had been killed in an attack by blacks of a neighbouring tribe.

Invariably after a death the Dieri shift their camp, and never after speak of, or refer to, the deceased person.

The Blanch-water section of that tribe fear the spirits of the dead, and take precautions to prevent the body from rising. They tie the toes together, and thumbs behind the back, sweep a clear space round the grave at dusk each evening, and inspect it to look for tracks early each morning for a month after death. Should tracks be found, the body is removed and reburied, as they think that the deceased is not satisfied with his first grave.

While the Dieri, Yaurorka, Yantruwunta, and Marula eat only the fat of the dead, other tribes eat the flesh also. Such are the Tangara, who carry the remains of the