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 enjoined in Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 1:  Ye are the children of the Lord your God, ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.  Now the native females invariably cut themselves and scratch their faces in mourning for the dead; they also literally make a baldness between their eyes, this being always one of the places where they tear the skin with the finger nails.

The custom of remaining amongst the graves is found among the natives of nearly all known portions of Australia.  A similar practice is reprehended in Isaiah chapter 45 verses 4 and 5:  A people that provoke me to anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick, which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments.  See also on this subject, Lewis’s Origines Hebraeae, volume 3 page 381.

In Australia the object supposed to be obtained by this custom is a revelation as to what individual caused the death of the deceased; this revelation is made either by the means of actual visions or by dreams.

MYSTERIOUS BONES.

Although the natives of the different portions of Australia have various modes of effecting the discovery of the sorcerers who caused the death of the deceased, as well as different modes of avenging his death, I feel sure that they have all one common object in view.  In another part of this work I have given an account of an old woman watching by a grave with this intention; I have frequently however seen their sorcerers fulfil this duty; and the following extract from Mr. Threlkeld’s Vocabulary will show the prevalence of this custom on the eastern side of the continent:*

Mur-ro-kun, the name of a mysterious bone which is obtained by the Ka-ra-kul, a doctor or conjuror, three of which sleep on the grave of a recently interred corpse; when in the night, during their sleep, the dead person inserts a mysterious bone into each thigh of the three doctors, who feel the puncture not more severe than that of the sting of an ant.  The bones remain in the flesh of the doctors without any inconvenience to them, until they wish to kill any person, when by unknown means, it is said and believed, they destroy in a supernatural manner their ill-fated victim by the mysterious bone, causing it to enter into their bodies, and so occasion their death.