THE ABORIGINES OP AUSTRALIA. 13 Death is certainly a terrible visitor, and people of all nations seem to desire to retain the identity, as it were, amongst them. They do not like to consider the separation as final, and the being with whom they have been so familiar as removed from all intercourse. On the death of a husband, the widow is not permitted to look at any of the relatives for some time. Should she meet with any of the relatives, she immediately prostrates herself on the ground and conceals herself in her cloak. In some districts they bury the body in a sitting posture. In some districts they bury the dead with the face towards the east, depositing the arms, &c., of the deceased in the grave, and tying the legs of the corpse to the head, probably to save labour in digging. Their grave-yards are rather singular. They lay various casts of heads made of gypsum or lime on the graves as marks of friends, and a number of oblong balls connected with each end, and of the same material.
