In certain respects the most elaborate mourning ceremonies that I have seen amongst the different tribes were those of the Melville and Bathurst Island natives. They are also interesting because they differ so completely from any on the northern mainland and seem to point to the fact that the island natives have either developed these ceremonies amongst themselves or have derived them from some other people with whom they, but, apparently, not the natives of the mainland, have come in contact. It is well known that the natives on these Islands erect grave-posts that are often elaborately decorated with designs of a nature peculiar to them. So far as I am aware, the mainland tribes have no similar custom, but enough is not known of the northern coastal tribes to speak with certainty. In most respects the Melville and Bathurst people are closely allied to those inhabiting the Coburg Peninsula and the country south of this along the Alligator Rivers, and the existence of these remarkable burial and mourning ceremonies on the two islands is very difficult to understand.

Thanks to the assistance of my friend, Mr. R. J. Cooper, who has for many years past lived on Melville Island, and to the opportunity of visiting the Mission station, recently established on Bathurst Island by the Society of the Sacred Heart, under the management of Father Gsell, I was able to witness and secure records of these quaint and interesting ceremonies.