centre
of the pile where the body lay, and signified that the fire had reached it.

We left the spot long before the last billet was consumed, and Bennillong
appeared during the day more cheerful than we had expected, and spoke
about finding a nurse from among the white women to suckle his child.

The following day he invited us to see him rake the ashes of his wife
together, and we accompanied him to the spot, unattended by any of his
own people. He preceded us in a sort of solemn silence, speaking to no
one until he had paid Ba-rang-a-roo the last duties of a husband. In his
hand he had the spear with which he meant to punish the car-rah-dy
Wil-le-me-ring for non-attendance on his wife when she was ill, with the
end of which he raked the calcined bones and ashes together in a heap.
Then, laying the spear upon the ground, he formed with a piece of bark a
tumulus that would have done credit to a well-practised grave-digger,
carefully laying the earth round, smoothing every little unevenness, and
paying a scrupulous attention to the exact proportion of its form. On
each side the tumulus he placed a log of wood, and on the top of it
deposited the piece of bark with which he had so carefully effected its
construction. When all was done he asked us 'if it was good,' and
appeared pleased when we assured him that it was.

His deportment on this occasion was solemn and manly; an expressive
silence marked his conduct throughout the scene; in fact we attended him
as silently, and with close observation. He did not suffer any thing to
divert him from the business he had in hand, nor did he seem to be in the
least desirous to have it quickly dispatched, but paid this last rite
with an attention that did honour to his feelings as a man, as it seemed
the result of an heartfelt affection for the object of it, of whose
person nothing now remained but a piece or two of calcined bone. When his
melancholy work was ended, he stood for a few minutes with his hands
folded over his bosom, and his eye fixed upon his labours in the attitude
of a man in profound thought. Perhaps in that small interval of time many
ideas presented themselves to his imagination. His hands had just
completed the last service he could render to a woman who, no doubt, had
been useful to him; one to whom he was certainly attached (of many
instances of which we had at different times been witness) and one who
had left him a living pledge of some moments at least of e