Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/496

470 man would on the following morning make a track on the ground with the side of his hand, and tell the people that tracks were there, and that he knew from them who had killed the man, naming some one of another tribe. Then their aim was to kill that man.

A corpse was rolled up in Ti-tree bark and placed in a fork of a tree, the feet being left bare. A fire was made under the body. A spear and club were left near it, that the spirit of the dead might have weapons wherewith to kill game for his sustenance in the future state. A yam-stick was placed in the ground at a woman's grave, so that she might go away at night and seek for roots.

In the tribes within 30 miles of Maryborough (Queensland), when a man died, the body was either buried, burned, placed on a stage, or eaten. When the body was eaten, the bones were collected at once. When it was burned, the teeth were collected from the ashes. When it was buried, the bones were dug up after a time. There was no rule whether a deceased person should be buried, burned, or placed on a stage; but it was considered the greatest honour to eat your friends, if they had been killed at one of the ceremonial combats.

When the body was buried, or placed on a stage, one or more fires were lighted, not only to let the spirit of the deceased warm itself, when it got out of the grave, but also to keep away spirits of dead blacks of other tribes, or of bad men of their own tribe. It showed greater affection to light more fires than one, so as to give more warmth and greater security.

The bones, after being collected and carried about for a time, were put up in trees and left there.

When a man died, his intimate friends and relations would for a time, out of respect for him, taboo certain words or invent others, and a man might for instance say, "I will not speak his language any more, but will speak another language," and would for a time use one of the neighbouring dialects. The old men would also probably taboo certain animals, saying, "He ate that animal, we will not eat it