e body is put in a grave, and a little earth is
thrown on it; the natives place a number of sticks across its mouth, over
which they spread grass or bushes to prevent the remaining earth from
falling down, so that an empty space of about three feet in depth is left
between the body and the top earth."

At the Flinders river (Gulf of Carpentaria), Captain Stokes observes, "At
the upper part of Flinders river, a corpse was found lodged in the
branches of a tree, some twenty feet high from the ground; it had three
coverings, first, one of bark, then a net, and outside of all a layer of
sticks."

On the Murray river, and among the contiguous tribes, many differences
occur in the forms of burial adopted by the various tribes. Still-born
children are buried immediately. Infants not weaned are carried about by
the mother for some months, well wrapped up, and when thoroughly dry, are
put into nets or bags, and deposited in the hollows of trees, or buried.
Children and young people are buried as soon as practicable after death,
and a spearing match generally ensues.

Old people are also buried without unnecessary delay. I have even seen a
man in the prime of life all ready placed upon the bier before he was
dead, and the mourners and others waiting to convey him to his long home,
as soon as the breath departed.

In the case of a middle-aged, or an old man, the spearing and fighting
contingent upon a death is always greater than for younger natives. The
burial rites in some tribes assimilate to those practised near Adelaide;
in others I have witnessed the following ceremony:--The grave being dug,
the body was laid out near it, on a triangular bier (birri), stretched
straight on the back, enveloped in cloths and skins, rolled round and
corded close, and with the head to the eastward; around the bier were
many women, relations of the deceased, wailing and lamenting bitterly,
and lacerating their thighs, backs, and breasts, with shells or flint,
until the blood flowed copiously from the gashes. The males of the tribe
were standing around in a circle, with their weapons in their hands, and
the stranger tribes near them, in a similar position, imparting to the
whole a solemn and military kind of appearance. After this had continued
for some time, the male relatives closed in around the bier, the mourning
women renewed their lamentations in a louder tone, and two male relatives
stepped up to the bier, and stood across the body, one