They inclose the body in a neatly-hollowed piece of wood, and secure it to two or more trees, about six feet from the ground. A log about eight feet long is first split in two, and each of the parts carefully hollowed out to the required size. The body is then inclosed and the two pieces well lashed together, preparatory to being finally secured, as before stated, to the trees. The American Indians are by no means the only savages employing scaffolds as places of deposit for the dead, for Wood[72] gives a number of examples of this mode of burial. [Illustration: FIG. 21.--Australian Scaffold Burial.] [Illustration: FIG. 22.--Preparing the Dead.] In some parts of Australia the natives, instead of consuming the body by fire, or hiding it in caves or in graves, make it a peculiarly conspicuous object. Should a tree grow favorably for their purpose, they will employ it as the final resting place for the dead body. Lying in its canoe coffin, and so covered over with leaves and grass that its shape is quite disguised, the body is lifted into a convenient fork of the tree and lashed to the boughs, by native ropes. No farther care is taken of it, and if in process of time it should be blown out of the tree, no one will take the trouble of replacing it. Should no tree be growing in the selected spot, an artificial platform is made for the body, by fixing the ends of stout branches in the ground and connecting them at their tops by smaller horizontal branches. Such are the curious tombs which are represented in the illustration. * * * These strange tombs are mostly placed among the reeds, so that nothing can be more mournful than the sound of the wind as it shakes the reeds below the branch in which the corpse is lying. The object of this aerial tomb is evident enough, namely, to protect the corpse from the dingo, or native dog. That the ravens and other carrion-eating birds should make a banquet upon the body of the dead man does not seem to trouble the survivors in the least, and it often happens that the traveler is told by the croak of the disturbed ravens that the body of a dead Australian is lying in the branches over his head. The aerial tombs are mostly erected for the bodies of old men who have died a natural death; but when a young warrior has fallen in battle the body is treated in a very different manner. A moderately high platform is erected, and upon this is seated the body of the dead warrior with the face toward the rising sun. The legs are crossed and the arms kept extended by means of sticks. The fat is then removed, and after being mixed with red ochre is rubbed over the body, which has previously been carefully denuded of hair, as is done in the ceremony of initiation. The legs and arms are covered with zebra-like stripes of red, white, and yellow, and the weapons of the dead man are laid across his lap.