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 or 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.