Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/497

 for a long time." This might last for a year, or even more.

Among the Kuinmurbura, the custom was to make a hole about a foot deep for a grave, place the body in it and cover with sticks and logs. When the flesh had decayed away, the bones were collected in a bag, called by the whites a "dilly-bag," and placed in a hollow tree.

It was said by the Kuinmurbura that the natives of the Keppel Islands at the mouth of the Fitzroy River, called the Wapio-bura, that is, of or belonging to Wapio, an island, simply lay their dead on one particular place, on one of the islands, and never touch them again. This I have not been able to verify, and record it for what it may be worth.

Great fighting-men were placed, when dead, on a stage about six feet high, until the flesh decayed, and the young men would stand underneath and rub themselves with any juice which fell from it, in order to get the strength and fighting power of the dead man. When the bones were free from flesh, they were placed in a tree.

The Wakelbura belief was that no strong black would die, unless some one had placed a spell on him. When a man died, the body was placed on a frame, lying on bark and covered with branches, all of which must be of a tree of the same class and sub-class as that to which the deceased belonged. For instance, if he were a Banbe man, then the wood, bark, and branches would be of the Broad-leaved Box-tree, that tree being also of the Banbe sub-class. Men of the Malera class, which includes both Banbe and Kurgilla, would build the stage and cover the dead body. It must be remembered that in this tribe the two class names divide the whole universe between them. This being done, the women wailed, and cut themselves with stone knives, and at later times with broken glass. The old men, after the stage was made and the body placed on it, carefully loosened the ground under it so that it was reduced to dust, on which the slightest mark or print could be seen. They then made