approaches his wife and seats herself on the ground in front of her; the two now encircle one another with their left arms, resting their heads on each other’s shoulders, whilst they scratch their faces with their right hands and cry and wail in a tone which excites in the minds of all who hear them sensations of deep grief; indeed I know of no sound (not even excepting the Irish howl) which so fully expresses the passion of deep sorrow as this lament of the native women.  When their cry is completed the resident native woman rises from the ground and slowly walks from the wife of the one who has returned to the camp; the other female relatives of the deceased then advance in turn, and go through the same form.

The returned absentee is now at liberty to speak, and some of the party in recitative recount to him all the leading facts that have occurred since their last meeting; they are however very careful not to mention the name of the person who is dead, but describe him by his attributes and family in such a manner as to leave no doubt in the mind of the hearer; but to name aloud one who is departed would be a gross violation of their most sacred prejudices, and they carefully abstain from it.

CEREMONIES ON MEETING IN THE BUSH.

If natives meet in the bush the foregoing ceremonies are in part observed:  both parties at their first meeting sit down at a distance from one another, preserving a profound silence and keeping their eyes fixed on the ground; after a time one of them commences a chant about himself and from what great family he has sprung; they then approach one another, and if there is a death to communicate the men press breast to breast, and knee to knee, remaining for some time with averted faces, lost in melancholy thoughts; when they separate the women approach and kneel, scratching their faces and crying in the way I have above described.  Should no relative have died upon either side the men, after rising up, approach one another and enter into conversation; whilst the elder married females, if they like a stranger, embrace him affectionately and give him a loud-sounding kiss upon each cheek; on several occasions I have had to submit myself, with as good a grace as I could, to this salutation.

In these casual meetings of natives it occasionally happens that several women kneel together, crying and embracing the knees of some old savage, who stands erect in the midst of the group, with a proud and lordly air, whilst they cower to the earth around him; sometimes they have children slung at their backs, and these little things may be seen unconsciously playing with their mothers’ hair whilst this mournful scene is enacting.

PUNCTILIOS OF FORM.

Some old women are scrupulously punctilious about the performance of all these matters of etiquette, attaching a degree of importance to them which, in the eyes of civilized man, approaches the ludicrous; but they look upon them in a very different light.  I have seen a number of these sticklers for form kneeling round a little boy not more than six or seven years old, lamenting most bitterly, the little fellow meanwhile preserving in his countenance and bearing all the gravity and dignity which a man could have exhibited.