Primary tabs
Transcription
at least in the northwestern parts of this Colony, a very
different mode of treating the dead is observed. They are
buried with care, amid lamentations and a strict
observance of traditional forms. Mounds are raised over
the dead, and are kept for years in exact order. I have
seen some of their circular (tumuli?) which bore evidence
that the hand of affection visited them from time to
time, to repair the injury which the heedless foot
of beast or bird may have caused. Some of their
Cemeteries are in shady groves; and English travellers
have been astonished to discover in the midst
of a tangled scrub a spot sacred to the sleep
of the dead, arranged with the neatness of a garden,
smooth beaten paths winding between the mounds.
Sir Thos. Mitchell in his work on the Western Rivers
gives two sketches of aboriginal cemeteries. One is in a shady grove, the other on the bald top of
a mound overlooking a wide spread forest plain.
A more solemn and appropriate scene could not
have been chosen for such a purpose. It seems like a
(Pirgah?) from which the spirit of a buried Chief might
survey the wide stretching domain over which