THE DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD IN

AUSTRALIA.

BY NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS.

IT has been generally recognised that the Australian blacks are a mixed race, and the most commonly accepted theory as to their origin sees in them a cross between a Melanesian stock, perhaps that of which the Tasmanians were the remnant, and a straight-haired people, identified, though for no valid reason, with the Dravidians of South India. Although the shape of the skull and the character of the hair vary to some extent in different areas, and though there are well-marked facial types associated with certain areas, neither somatological nor cultural evidence pointed to any well-marked racial differences between the populations of different areas, such as would lead us to infer the predominance of one stock in one region, and of another stock in another region.

There are, of course, well-marked cultural areas, but the conclusions drawn from the distribution of spear types are overthrown by the evidence derived from types of initiation ceremonies; and social organisation gives us a map whose forms differ from both the others. How far this is due to transmission rather than tribal migration need not occupy us here; for, at any rate in Australia, language is a more reliable test of race, and the great number of independent languages makes it improbable that they have been spread by other means than the actual expansion of the stock that speaks them.

grounds, that all Australian languages are of the same type. Recent researches, however, by P. W. Schmidt,1 have shown that so far from this being the case, they fall into two large groups, only one of which-that occupying the southern half of the continent together with portions of the northern half in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Carpentaria-is apparently really indigenous; the northern group, which Schmidt is inclined to regard as immigrant Papuan languages, seldom extends further south than 20° S., and in addition to the Gulf extension of Australian languages already mentioned as encroaching upon the territory of this group, we find on the east coast another arm stretching up to 15° S.

The Australian languages proper fall into two subgroups, the old and the new, distinguishable by the position of the dependent genitive. The old group occupies the south of Victoria and is found sporadically on the east coast.

The present paper is devoted in the main to the examination of the light thrown on racial problems by the funeral customs of the Australians.

Before proceeding to examine in detail the Australian rites of disposal of the dead and their distribution, it may be well to call attention to certain general facts. In the first place, there are certain areas in which the method of disposal varies according to the age, sex, or status of the deceased; they include the greater part of Queensland, a part of the central area, the coastal region from the Daly River to the Coburg Peninsula, the district immediately north of the mouth of the Murray, and part of western Victoria. In the remainder of the continent, so far as we are aware, the rites are more simple, though here too the status of the deceased may make it incumbent on the survivors to mourn him with more ceremony. As a rule, where only one method of dealing with the body

is practised, it consists in simple burial beneath the surface of the ground; occasionally the trunk of a hollow tree is selected as the last resting-place of the remains, and still more rarely cremation, anthropophagy or exposure is the recognised method of disposing of the body.

The main feature of all these customs is that the body is dealt with once for all, mourning rites apart. It is quite exceptional for the widow to carry the ashes of the husband's corpse, as she does, according to Dawson, in the western districts of Victoria, and it is worthy of remark that even the custom of putting the body on a platform, in the form in which it is practised among the Narrinyeri and neighbouring tribes, is really much more akin to the simple burial than to the more complex types of ritual found in Queensland and other areas. For the main purpose of drying the corpse on the platform may have been no more than to preserve it until the mourning rites had all been performed; in the central area, of course, the corpse is left undisturbed for a whole year after the rites are concluded. At the same time it must not be forgotten that there are linguistic relations between the lower Murray area and the extreme north, and that the custom of removing the scarf skin practised by the Narrinyeri is also a feature of the rites of south Queensland, where the complex ritual is in force. In this connection I may mention that there is in the part of south Australia near the mouth of the Murray a well-marked type of skull. It is possible, therefore, that the tribes of this area which practise the more complex ritual are in reality offshoots of stocks whose main habitat is far removed from them.

Whether that is so or not, it may be said that, broadly speaking, the simple ritual is not found outside the area of the Australian languages; there is a tendency to greater complication in the area of the old Australian

neo-Australian area of Queensland practise the complex ritual, notably those of the south centre, of the coast north of Cape Grafton and of the district round Brisbane. But there is some evidence, linguistic and otherwise, for a foreign element in both these latter areas, and the only real exception to the rule that the simple ritual is associated with the neo-Australian languages is therefore the south-central Queensland area, the home of the so-called bura-tribes, the intrusive character of which Dr. Graebner has endeavoured to prove.1 The evidence clearly makes it possible to hold either of two theoriesthat an invading stock, retaining in the main their own culture, took over the language of the indigenous inhabitants, or that the latter took over the customs of the alien tribes with which they came in contact without suffering any marked alien immigration.

It is perhaps of interest to point out that in the case of the Arunta we find precisely the opposite phenomenon ; their language does not belong to either of the Australian groups; but it is their custom to bury the body within. a very short time of death instead of practising the elaborate ceremonies of their northern neighbours. Not only so, but there is another link between their customs and that of the neo-Australian tribes, in that they leave an aperture in the grave mound, to permit the spirit of the dead to escape, precisely as do some of their neo-Australian speaking neighbours on the west.2 cannot but think that this adds force to the arguments of those who regard the Arunta as abnormal rather than primitive. If they are primarily an Australian tribe, they have taken over a foreign language, and obviously this implies deep modifications; if they are immigrants, perhaps from New Guinea, there can hardly be any question. as to their non-primitive character.

1 Globus, 1906, 2.

I

Broadly speaking, the object of the ceremonies of the southern tribes seems to be to placate the deceased by adequate rites of mourning; certain of the fire customs seem to be intended to drive away the ghost. But on the whole there is no well-marked evidence of such an intention, and so far as can be seen the spirit of the dead person is supposed to remain for ever in the neighbourhood of the corpse. In the northern area, on the other hand, though mourning rites are also performed, the exposure of the body on a stage is intended to cause the flesh to come away from the bones; as in other parts of the world, the final burial or disposal of the latter is regarded as the signal for the spirit to quit the neighbourhood of its earthly remains. Though the dead are feared in this area too, the feeling seems to be less strong, and in the Binbinga tribe the father and mother approach the fire near which the spirit hovers at times.1

We may now proceed to a more detailed account of Australian funeral customs. As a typical example of West Australian burial ceremonies may be taken the rites in the neighbourhood of Perth described by Moore.2 A clear spot was selected near some mahogany trees, and a grave dug in a north and south direction, four feet long, three feet broad, and eighteen inches deep, the clay being heaped up in crescent form on the west. The body was doubled up so that the heels touched the thighs, the hair and beard were cut and singed smooth; another account says that this was done by throwing wood and brush into the grave and setting fire to it. Moore states that the nail of the little finger of the right hand is burnt off, and the finger and thumb tied together. The detail as to the nail is curious, as elsewhere it is the thumb-nail that is burnt off and the reason given-to prevent the dead man from using the mero or spear