riend to intervene and stop your
self-mutilation.

On emerging from the grave the spirit finds the spirits of his dead
relations waiting to go with him to Oobi Oobi, that is, a sacred
mountain whose top towers into the sky, nearly touching Bullimah. The
new spirit recognises his relations at once; they had, many of them,
been round the death-bed visible at the last to the dying, though not
to any of the watchers with him, though these are said sometimes to
hear the spirit voices.

The spirit from the grave carried with him the twigs of the sacred
Dheal tree which were placed over and under his body; he follows his
spirit relations, dropping these twigs as he goes along, leaving thus a
trail that those who follow may see. At the top of Oobi Oobi he finds
the spirits called Mooroobeaigunnil, whose business it is to bridge
over the distance a spirit has to traverse between the top of the
mountain and Bullimah, the great Byamee's sky-camp.

One of these Mooroobeaigunnil seizes him and hoists him on to his
shoulders; then comes another and hoists the first; and so on, until
the one holding the spirit can lift him into Bullimah. As the spirit is
hoisted in, one of the Mooroobeaigunnil, knocks the lowest one in the
ladder of spirits down; thud to the earth come the rest, making a sound
like a thunderclap, which the far away tribes hear, and hearing say:

'A spirit has entered Bullimah.'

Should a big meteor fall followed by a thunderclap, it is a sign that a
great man has died. Should a number of stars shoot off from a falling
star, it is a sign that a man has died leaving a large family. When a
star is seen falling in the day-time, it is a sign that one of the
Noongahburrah tribe dies.

In the olden time some of the tribes would keep a body at least five
days. Then they would rub the outside black skin off, make an opening
in the side of the body, take out the internal parts, fill it up with
Dheal leaves. They would place the rubbed-off skin and internals in
bark and put it in hollow trees. They would then bury the body, which
they said would come up white.

Sometimes they would keep their dead for weeks, that they might easily
extract the small joint bones with which to make poison.

A baby's body they would sometimes carry for years before burying, but
it would usually have been well smoke-dried first, though not, I
believe, invariably so.

Sometimes a body was kept so that relations from a distance might come
a