Protecting the Dead.
The graves made by certain of the Australian blacks are so designed that the “Evil Spirit,” coming to claim a victim may imagine it untenanted. Ths graves ate dug wide and deep, and to one side is excavated a little unobtrusive shelf, on which the corpse is seated in huddled post Ur-, hands clasped around the knees. A boomerang and a nulla nulla are placed where he can easily reach them for defence, and a sheet of bark serves’ as a Wall between the shelf and the grave. After the grave is filled in. a mound composed of sticks, built in sugarloaf fashion, is raised above it as a guard against dingoes and the like.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZGRAP19120327.2.137
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 13, 27 March 1912, Page 62
Word Count
118Protecting the Dead. New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 13, 27 March 1912, Page 62
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Acknowledgements
This material was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries. You can find high resolution images on Kura Heritage Collections Online.
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