up,
everyone present struck repeatedly a bundle of spears with the mearu
which they held with the butts downwards, making a rattling noise. Then,
when the fire had burnt out, they placed the corpse beside the grave, and
gashed their thighs, and at the flowing of the blood they all said, "I
have brought blood," and they stamped the foot forcibly on the ground,
sprinkling the blood around them; then, wiping the wounds with a wisp of
leaves, they threw it, bloody as it was, on the dead man; then a loud
scream ensued and they lowered the body into the grave, resting on the
back, with the soles of the feet on the ground and the knees bent; they
filled the grave with soft brushwood, and piled logs on this to a
considerable height, being very careful all the time to prevent any of
the soil from falling into the apertures; they then constructed a hut
over the woodstack, and one of the male relations got into it and said,
"Mya balung einya ngin-na" ("I sit in his house.") One of the women then
dropped a few live coals at his feet, and, having stuck his dismantled
meerro at the end of one of the mounds, they left the place, retiring in
a contrary direction from that in which they came, chanting.

...

BURIAL AT KING GEORGE's SOUND.

The two foregoing descriptions exhibit the native funeral ceremonies as
practised at Perth, and at the Vasse on the sea-coast to the south of
Perth. I shall now add a third description of the usages at King George's
Sound as given by Mr. Scott Nind in the first volume of the Journal of
the Royal Geographical Society page 46:

Their funeral solemnities are accompanied by loud lamentations. A grave
is dug, about four feet long and three wide, and perhaps a yard in depth;
the earth that is removed is arranged on one side of the grave in the
form of a crescent; at the bottom is placed some bark, and then small
green boughs, and upon this the body, ornamented and enveloped in its
cloak, with the knees bent up to the breast, and the arms crossed.* Over
the body are heaped more green boughs and bark, and the hole is then
filled with earth. Green boughs are placed over the earth, and upon them
are deposited the spears, knife, and hammer of the deceased, together
with the ornaments that belonged to him; his throwing-stick on one side,
and his curl (kiley) or towk (dowak) on the other side of the mound. The
mourners then carve circles in the bark of the trees that grow near the
grave, at the height of six o