e I remember the ghost was represented to have set fire to a _wurley_
[hut], and ascended to heaven in the flame. The Narrinyeri regard the
disapprobation of the spirits of the dead as a thing to be dreaded; and
if a serious quarrel takes place between near relatives, some of the
friends are sure to interpose with entreaties to the contentious parties
to be reconciled, lest the spirits of the dead should be offended at
unseemly disputes between those who ought to be at peace. The name of
the dead must not be mentioned until his body has decayed, lest a want
of sorrow should seem to be indicated by the common and flippant use of
his name. A native would have the deceased believe that he cannot hear
or speak his name without weeping."[171]

[Sidenote: Narrinyeri fear of the dead. Mourning customs.]

From this account it would appear that the Narrinyeri have no belief in
the reincarnation of the dead; they suppose that the souls of the
departed live up aloft in the sky, from which they descend at night in
the form of ghosts to haunt and trouble the living. On the whole the
attitude of the Narrinyeri towards their dead kinsfolk seems to be
dominated by fear; of affection there is apparently little or no trace.
It is true that like most Australian tribes they indulge in extravagant
demonstrations of grief at the death of their kinsfolk. A great
lamentation and wailing is made by all the relations and friends of the
deceased. They cut off their hair close to the head and besmudge
themselves with oil and pounded charcoal. The women besmear themselves
with the most disgusting filth. All beat and cut themselves and make a
violent show of sorrow; and all the time that the corpse, rubbed over
with grease and red ochre, is being dried over a slow fire in the hut,
the women take it by turns to weep and wail before it, so that the
lamentation never ceases for days. Yet Mr. Taplin was persuaded "that
fear has more to do with most of these exhibitions than grief"; and he
tells us that "for one minute a woman will appear in the deepest agony
of grief and tears; a few minutes after, the conventional amount of
weeping having been accomplished, they will laugh and talk with the
merriest."[172] The principal motive, in fact, for all this excessive
display of sorrow would seem to be a fear lest the jealous ghost should
think himself slighted and should avenge the slight on the cold-hearted
relatives who do not mourn sufficiently for the irre