As a typical illustration we shall discuss the “Illiya Tjuringa” or Great Emu Ceremony of the eastern Arunndta groups. The date of the performance is decided by the senior emu “brother” of the tribe, the oldest member who claims to be related to the Illiya Knaninja. Somewhat extensive preparations are made beginning a few days prior to the opening event. Only fully initiated men take part, but the women are allowed to witness certain of the most awe-inspiring stages from a distance. Whilst the younger men are out collecting leaves, out of which they make the down later to adorn the bodies of the performers, the older men prepare the sacred ground. Others slay a number of brown hawks, off which they pull the feathers and then pluck the down. A suitable site having been selected, the old men clear it by removing all grass and bush from the surface and smoothing the sand with their feet. The “brothers” who claim relationship alike to the great Emu-Man, the Emu-Knaninja, and the emu itself, thereupon proceed to anoint the sacred ground with their blood, for which purpose they puncture the median basilic vein of the forearm with a quartzite chip and allow the fluid of kinship to sprinkle upon the sand. It is surprising to see the amount of blood sacrificed by the men on occasions like this; and time after time, when such is required, the process is repeated. By examining the forearms of an old stager, one can usually count a number of small scars along the course of a vein indicating places where a perforation has at different times been made. A venesection is made after much the same manner among the various tribes.
The following Arunndta method will serve as an example. A ligature of hair-string is in the first place tied tightly round the upper arm, a little above the biceps muscle, after the style of a tourniquet to check the flow of blood in the veins and thereby distend the vessels. The man then makes a small longitudinal cut through the skin and punctures the vein beneath it lengthwise; the blood spurts forth immediately and is collected in the handle-pit of a shield. When the flow is to be stopped, the native removes the ligature, and this in most cases is all that is needed. Should, however, the blood continue to come, he places a small amount of down over the incision and presses it against the vein, or winds three or four strands of fur-string around it. The little pad of down is usually left on the arm until it dries and falls off. None of the women are allowed to witness this operation, which is called “Ilgarukna.” The blood, when it is to be used as an adhesive for the down-decoration, is applied with a small brush (“ipinja”) made of twigs tied together with fur-string. Vide [Plate XXXIII].
The principal among the emu group is called “Illiyakuta,” and it is he who directs the performance. He takes his followers to a secluded place, such as a clump of timber or down a creek-bed, and there the wooden tjuringas belonging to the ceremony are produced and painted afresh with red ochre and emu fat.
Down is made out of the white, felty leaves and twigs of Kochia bush, which the Arunndta call “kemba.” Small quantities of these are placed upon a flat slab of stone and pounded with a pebble. The fluffy material which results is next mixed and rubbed by hand with powdered kaolin or ochre according to the colour required, the white being known as “wadua,” the red as “wanjerra.”
A sacred object is now constructed which encloses the painted tjuringas and is called the “Tjilbakuta.” It is about three feet high and is made in the following way. The tjuringas are laid one on top of the other and bound together with many lengths of human hair-string, which completely obscure the shape of the separate pieces. A thick layer of the stalks of the kangaroo grass (Anthistiria) is laid around the parcel and kept in position with a few lengths of twine, and then the whole structure is covered with great masses of human hair-string wound spirally from top to bottom. A cylinder results which is decorated with alternate vertical bands of red and white vegetable down. Into the top of this Tjilbakuta one bundle of emu feathers and one of black cockatoo tail-feathers are stuck; and often additional plumes are hung beneath them. The moment the sacred object is completed, the Illiyakuta delegates one of his group to act as its attendant or guardian. For the time being his body is decorated with symmetrically placed, curved ochre bands upon the chest and vertical bands down the arms; at a later stage he ornaments his body more elaborately, prior to taking part in the principal performance; but all the time he remains in his place of hiding beside the Tjilbakuta. Vide [Plate XXXIV].
At the sanctified place close by the other men have been stacking firewood at different points to illuminate the proceedings during the evening. Occasionally, too, the Illiyakuta group of men cover a portion of the ground with a coloured emblem of the traditional emu.
Early in the afternoon of the festive day the men who will take part in the ceremony at night begin to prepare themselves. Many of the non-performers help them.
Large quantities of down, both vegetable and birds’, are used to decorate the bodies. The design is shaped much like a cobbler’s apron, extending from the neck down the front to the level of the knees. The greater part of this surface is red, but it is lined with white and split along the centre by two parallel lines of white. The back is not decorated at all. The entire surface of the face, including the eye-lids and beard, is thickly covered with down which is white, except for an oval red patch around the mouth.
The principal attraction, however, of the sacred emu ceremony is the head-dress, which is both elaborate and imposing. To prepare it, the attendant combs back the actor’s hair with his fingers, and interlaces it with stalks of grass and small twigs in such a way that a tall conical structure results right on top of the head. This is made secure and of a uniform exterior by winding much human hair-string around it, at the same time taking in a plume of emu feathers at the apex of the cone. The headgear is completely enveloped in red and white down, extending upwards from the head as alternate vertical bands. The chief emu-man is distinguished by an extra large headdress called the “Illiya Altjerra Kuta”; this measures a good three feet in length, and it embodies, between the apex and the emu plume, deeply enshrouded with hair-string and down, the sacred “Illiya Tjuringa.” Other members who are of the same rank as the “Tjilbakuta” guardian, wear their insignia beneath the emu feathers in the form of a sickle-shaped rod, which carries at each of its points a tuft of white cockatoo feathers. All performers cover their person with a dog-tail appendage which hangs from a thin waistband of human hair-string. And lastly, they all tie bundles of eucalyptus twigs, with the leaves attached, to their legs just above the ankles. If possible, old or half-dried leaves are selected in order that a more pronounced rustling is produced when the men move about; the noise is made to imitate the rustle of the wiry feathers of an emu. Vide [Plate XXXV].
At nightfall the Tjilbakuta is removed from the hiding place and planted on the edge of the ensanguined patch. The guardian is thus given an opportunity to slip away and to attend to his ceremonial toilet, which is similar to that of the rest of the Tjilbakuta group. When he returns, the performance is about to begin, and all except he leave the ground.