y-made grave, is thus described. Even at mid-day, the forest wore a
sombre aspect, and a stillness and solitude reigned throughout it that
were very striking. Occasionally, a timid kangaroo might be seen
stealing off in the distance, or a kangaroo-rat might dart out from a
tuft beneath your feet, but these were rare circumstances. The most
usual disturbers of these wooded solitudes were the black cockatoos;
"but I have never, in any part of the world," adds the enterprising
traveller, "seen so great a want of animal life as in these mountains."
It was not far from this lonely district, in a country nearly resembling
it, only less wooded and more broken into deep valleys, that a recent
grave was found, carefully constructed, with a hut built over it, to
protect the now senseless slumberer beneath from the rains of winter.
All that friendship could do to render his future state happy had been
done. His throwing-stick was stuck in the ground at his head; his broken
spears rested against the entrance of the hut; the grave was thickly
strewed with _wilgey_, or red earth; and three trees in front of the
hut, chopped with a variety of notches and uncouth figures, bore
testimony that his death had been bloodily avenged. The native Kaiber,
who acted as guide to the travellers, gazed upon this scene with concern
and uneasiness. Being asked why the spears were broken, the trees
notched, and the red earth strewed upon the grave, his reply was,
"Neither you nor I know: our people have always done so, and we do so
now,"--quite as good a reason as many who think themselves far more
enlightened are able to give for their actions. When a proposal was
made to stop for the night at this solitary spot, poor Kaiber resisted
it; "I cannot rest here," said he, "for there are many spirits in this
place."[63]

[63] See, however, a more pleasing picture of a native burying-place,
in Mitchell's Three Expeditions, vol. i. p. 321.

When Mr. Montgomery Martin was in Australia, he obtained with some
difficulty the dead body of an old woman, who had long been known
about Sydney. Hearing of her death and burial in the forest, about
twenty-five miles from his residence, he went thither, and aided by some
stock-keepers, found the grave,--a slightly elevated and nearly circular
mound. The body was buried six feet deep, wrapped in several sheets of
bark, the inner one being of a fine silvery texture. Several things
which the deceased possessed in life