ases, until they carry off their
dead, and mourn for certain days, according to their custom; bedaubing
themselves over with black earth, and on another day the fight begins and
ends in a similar way.

...

DISPOSAL OF THEIR DEAD.

This is singularly analogous to what occurred on our encounter with them
on the 11th February. Dr. Duncan continues:

When one dies or is killed they bury the body in the earth, but at the
end of five days dig it up again and wrap up the bones, etc., in bark of
trees, and carry them along with them. When the women fight, which is
very often, they use a short kind of club. The natives paint their bodies
over with red clay to prevent the mosquitoes from biting them. When they
paint their bodies white it is a sign of war with some other tribe.

...

A very remarkable instance of coincidence in this custom with regard to
the dead will be found in a subjoined extract from a letter sent to me by
an officer of the Beagle, together with a skeleton which he had found at
Cygnet Bay. The skeleton has been presented to the Royal College of
Surgeons:

The skeleton was found enveloped in three pieces of papyrus bark, on a
small sandy point in Cygnet Bay. All the bones were closely packed
together, and the head surmounted the whole. It did not appear to have
been long interred. They had evidently been packed with care. All the
long bones were undermost, and the small ones were strewed in among them.
The head was resting on its base, face across.

Three natives were close to the place when we first landed: the eldest of
the party went up to the spot immediately after I had removed the bones;
he turned up the bark with his foot, and did not appear to show the
slightest symptom of uneasiness. They were for some days among the
watering party on very friendly terms.

...

CAVES. DRAWINGS. TOMBS.

As I never, during my subsequent travels in Australia, saw anything at
all resembling the painted caves which I have described in the ninth
chapter, I shall here add some observations on the subject, which I could
not have there detailed without too great an interruption to the
narrative.

Two other instances of Australian caves which contain paintings have been
recorded. The first is by Captain Flinders and the second by Mr.
Cunningham in King's voyage.

PAINTINGS AT CHASM ISLAND.

The caves found by Flinders were in Chasm Island, in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and are thus described:*

In the steep