Australian AboriginesPublished online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
Native mounds, so common all over the country, are called ‘pok yuu’ by the Chaa wuurong tribe; ‘po'ok,’ by the Kuurn kopan noot tribe; and ‘puulwuurn’ by the Peek whuurong tribe; and were the sites of large, permanent habitations, which formed homes for many generations. The great size of some of them, and the vast accumulation of burnt earth, charcoal, and ashes which is found in and around them, is accounted for by the long continuance of the domestic hearth, the decomposition of the building materials, and the debris arising from their frequent destruction by bush fires. They never were ovens, or original places of interment, as is generally supposed, and were only used for purposes of burial after certain events occurred while they were occupied as sites for residences—such as the death of more than one of the occupants of the dwelling at the same time, or the family becoming extinct; in which instance they were called ‘muuru kowuutuung’ by the Chaa wuurong tribe, and ‘muuruup kaakee’ by the Kuurn kopan noot tribe, meaning ‘ghostly place,’ and were never afterwards used as sites for residences, and only as places for burial. There is an idea that when two persons die at the same time on any particular spot, their deaths, if not attributed to the spell of an enemy, are caused by something unhealthy about the locality, and it is abandoned for ever.
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