1, fig. 17.)
[Note 84: The custom among the Australians of putting dust or ashes on the
head, of shaving the head, of clipping the beard, and of lacerating the
body at death or in sign of mourning, appears very similar to
the practices among the Israelites in the time of Moses. Vide
Leviticus xix. 27, 28; Leviticus xxi. 5; Jeremiah xiviii. 30, 31, 32;
Revelations xviii. 19, etc.]
[Note 85: The women among the American Indians also cut off the hair
close to the head as a sign of mourning. - Vide Catlin, vol. i.]
The lamentations for the dead do not terminate with the burial;
frequently they are renewed at intervals by the women, during late hours
of the night, or some hours before day-break in the morning. Piercingly
as those cries strike upon the traveller in the lonely woods, if raised
suddenly, or very near him, yet mellowed by distance they are soothing
and pleasing, awakening a train of thoughts and feelings, which, though
sad and solemn, are yet such as the mind sometimes delights to indulge
in. The names of the dead are never repeated by the natives among
themselves, and it is a very difficult matter for a European to get them
to break through this custom, nor will they do it in the presence of
other natives. In cases where the name of a native has been that of some
bird or animal of almost daily recurrence, a new name is given to the
object, and adopted in the language of the tribe.
