Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/477

VIII go a long way to the north, and so with the men of each of the local divisions, each to its own direction.

The tribes in the district about Adelaide, Gawler, and Gumeracha buried the dead in a straight position, wrapped up in wallaby rug, and packed comfortably with leaves and tender boughs. They dug a hole about three feet deep, deposited the body, and covered it up, first with earth and sand, then, if convenient, with stones. At the head of the grave a crescent of earth or stone was erected.

In the Tongaranka tribe, when a death occurs, the immediate relations smear themselves with Kopai (gypsum), hence the name Kopai-nongo is used for a widow. The body is buried in a sitting posture, and all implements are buried with it. Before the grave is filled in, the nearest male relation present stands over the grave and receives several blows with the edge of a boomerang, the blood being allowed to flow on the corpse. The grave is then filled in, and logs are piled on it to keep the dogs away. The loud wailing which is raised at a death is repeated every day for a whole moon. The place chosen for a grave is on a sand-hill, where it is easy to dig, and on the top of the grave a hole is made like a nest, and in it are placed ten or twelve white egg-shaped stones made of ground gypsum moistened with water, shaped like eggs and allowed to dry. A cone-shaped roof of branches is raised above this nest, big enough to hold two people.

When one of the now practically extinct Wiimbaio tribe died, his face was covered with the corner of his skin rug, because no one would look at the face of a dead person. The body was laid out at length, rolled in his rug, and corded tightly. The relations used to lie with their heads on the body, and even stretched at length on the corpse. Old Headmen, or men of note, or fathers of strong families, were buried in what may be called their cemeteries. These were on sand-hills where the pines grow, and thither their dead were carried with great lamentations and mourning. A six-foot hole was dug in the sand, and the body, being wrapped up in a rug or blanket and made comfortable with twigs