Messengers in central Australia sent to form a Pinya to avenge a death wear a kind of net on the head and a white frontlet in which is stuck a feather. The messenger is painted with yellow ochre and pipeclay and bears a bunch of emu feathers stuck in his girdle at the back, at the spine. He carries part of the deceased’s beard or some balls of pipeclay from the head of one of those mourning for him. These are shown at the destination of the messenger and are at once understood.
The same author, p. 78, reports:
A third party which the Dieri sent out was the dreaded Pinya. It was the avenger of the dead, of those who were believed to have been done to death by sorcery.
The appearance at a camp of one or more men marked each with a white band round the head, with diagonal white and red stripes across the breast and stomach, and with the point of the beard tied up and tipped with human hair, is the sign of a Pinya being about. These men do not converse on ordinary matters, and their appearance is a warning to the camp to listen attentively and to reply truly to such questions as may be put concerning the whereabouts of the condemned man. Knowing the remorseless spirit of the Pinya, any and every question is answered in terror.
SIGNS OF INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS.
Prince Maximilian of Wied, (b) gives an account explanatory of Figs. 558 and 559:
Fig. 558.—Mark of exploit. Dakota.
Fig. 559.—Killed with fist. Dakota.