according to circumstances, and wood, stones, &c. are piled on the entrance, or over the grave, so that, according to the ideas of these poor, superstitious savages, the _Buckee_ may not be able to find them. Even after the relation of this disgusting custom, these people are more degraded by writers than they really appear when seen in the interior, uncontaminated by European vices, in full native independence, hunters, but not tillers of the soil, from having no natural productions worthy of cultivation.[47] The following is the practice of midwifery, as I observed it among the native tribes, more particularly those inhabiting the Yas, Murrumbidgee, and Tumat countries. When a female is in labour she leaves the camp alone, and, should any assistance be required, she calls another female to her. When the child is born, the afterbirth, or placenta, is separated from the navel-string, or umbilical cord, by scraping or rudely cutting it with a shell, and the cord is left pending to some length from the abdomen of the infant. The parent then taking some water into her mouth, throws it over the child, rubbing the infant at the same time with coarse grass; and this, I suppose, they would call cleaning the little newborn creature. The first flow of milk is not given by the mother to the child, as they say it would produce griping. The afterbirth is buried by the mother, and soon taken up again and burnt; it is only buried, however, if they are not prepared to burn it immediately, but it is usually destroyed on the same day or night on which the woman has been delivered, although I could not ascertain correctly whether they entertain any such superstitious notions regarding the placenta, as obtains among the New Zealand females, yet by the care in burning it some such idea no doubt exists among them.[48] If the placenta is retained long after the birth of the infant, they endeavour to excite uterine contraction, by employing pressure on the lower part of the abdomen over the region of the womb. As soon as the child is born, the forehead of the infant is compressed, by laying the child upon its back and employing pressure with the foot; I could not find out for what object this was done, as the pressure was not repeated after the day following the birth of the infant.