r seven feet from the ground; and, lastly,
making a small fire in front, they gather small boughs and carefully
brush away any portion of the earth that may adhere to them. The face is
coloured black or white, laid on in blotches across the forehead, round
the temples, and down the cheek bones, and these marks of mourning are
worn for a considerable time. They also cut the end of the nose, and
scratch it for the purpose of producing tears.

(*Footnote. Charlevoix, in describing the funeral of the North American
Indians, says: Le cadavre est expose a la porte de la cabanne dans la
posture qu'il doit avoir dans le tombeau, et cette posture en plusieurs
endroits est cela de l'enfant dans la sein de sa mere. Nor was this
custom confined to these races, for, in the words of Cicero:
Antiquissimum sepulturae genus id fuisse videtur, quo apud Xenophontem
Cyrus utitur; redditur enim terrae corpus, et ita locatum ac situm, quasi
operimento matria obducitur. De Legibus 11 66.)

...

CUSTOMS OF SELF-LACERATION, AND OF REMAINING WATCHING AMONG THE GRAVES.

The foregoing relations of the ceremonies practised at a native funeral
exhibit some instances of the way in which they lacerate themselves in
the exercise of certain superstitious rites, a custom very prevalent
throughout all the yet known parts of Australia, and according with those
described in the first book of Kings chapter 18 verse 28: And they cried
aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till
the blood gushed out upon them.

And again, Jeremiah chapter 48 verse 37: For every head shall be bald,
and every beard clipped; upon all the hands shall be cuttings, etc.

The natives of many parts of Australia when at a funeral cut off portions
of their beards, and, singeing these, throw them upon the dead body; in
some instances they cut off the beard of the corpse, and, burning it, rub
themselves and the body with the singed portions of it.

"It may be also remarked," says Major Mitchell,* "that a superstitious
custom prevailed among the Gentiles in mourning for the dead. They cut
off their hair, and threw it into the sepulchre with the bodies of their
relations and friends, and sometimes laid it upon the face or breast of
the dead as an offering to the infernal gods, whereby they thought to
appease them, and make them kind to the deceased." See Maimonides de Idol
112 1, 2, 5.

(*Footnote. Australian Expedition volume 1 page 254 note.)

It is