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[Page 4]
A Blackfellow Funeral (large tick) (page 4 handwritten note on lined paper)
One of a small camp of blacks about a
quarter of a mile from our house, a man
died and they borrowed a spade from us to
dig his grave - This was placed a few yards
above high water mark and the burial was
fixed for flood tide not on the ebb lest the
spirit of the despatched should be carried
out to sea and lost in the great waters -
The corpse was neatly encased in a sheet
of bark (paperbark) from the giant Titree
(Mellluca) bound round with vines
from the scrub then an outer casing of a
freshly stripped sheet of stringybark also
bound round with vines all being ready
the next thing was to find out who was
responsible for the man's death for it was
believed that all sickness was brought about
by the ( ? ) of an enemy. "That feller been
put them stone or that feller been put them bone"
they would say - The plan adopted,
was as follows - the coffin was lifted upon
the shoulders of two men - a third holding
a green branch stood at the side and called
out the names of everyone he could think of at