The Australian aboriginal

by Herbert Basedow

Barely has he finished his taunting sentence, and before the other man has had time to prepare for another throw, he bounds forward and projects his weapon. During the fight, the antics of the men, especially of the one on the defensive, are remarkable, jumping from leg to leg, at one time holding the shield straight in front of the body whilst covering the head, at another, standing erect with the shield at about the level of his chest.

During their duels, an admirable spirit of chivalry is displayed by the combatants. If, for instance, a shield breaks, the man who has the advantage refuses to fight until the broken weapon has been replaced. The same regulation applies to a broken spear, but not to a broken spear-head; if the latter breaks, the circumstance is looked upon as the result of bad workmanship, and the fight continues. Only a certain number of spears is carried by the parties; and any damaged weapon might be replaced from a bundle held in reserve by the gins, who stand in readiness. When the missiles have been spent on both sides, the parties change ends to collect their spears, after which the hostilities are resumed.

Irrespective of any of the methods here described, whereby the natives actually fight with weapons for the sake of honour or revenge, it is quite as customary among all Australian tribes to bring about the downfall of a rival or enemy by the magic influence of suggestion. This is the wonderfully potent method of “pointing” death at a man, who may or may not be present or visible. The process is usually referred to as “pointing the bone,” or simply “boning.”

In the Alligator district of the Northern Territory, the excrement of a man, who is to be sent to his death, is collected and roasted over a fire; after which a little of it is taken and mixed with the resin of porcupine grass. A ceremonial dance follows during the night, which is of a very secret character, men as well as women participating. The chants which are sung implore the birds of night—the owl, the plover, and the curlew—not to betray the men who are seeking revenge. At the far end of the ground, cleared for the occasion, a hole is dug, in which a fire is burned while the ceremony is in progress. Enchanting songs are now rendered, which are to entice the spirit-father of the doomed man to attend. A little later one of the principal performers marches forwards, carrying a small ball of resin mixed with the burned excrement, together with a short stick representing the spirit-father. At a given moment, he begins to dance and, with his free hand, catches hold of his scrotum. When he arrives at the hole, in which the fire is burning, other men snatch the glowing embers and clear the ashes out of the way. The dancer throws the resin-ball containing the excrement into the hole and covers it with hot sand. The moment it strikes the hot ground, the resin fizzles and crackles; and those sounds are taken to be the voice of the spirit calling the victim from the earth.

Shortly after the ceremony these facts are made known to the unfortunate who has been selected to die; they are usually conveyed to him by one or two eye-witnesses of the ceremony. Overcome with consternation and terror, the fellow immediately begins to fret; and death will inevitably be the outcome, unless the counter-influence of a medicine man or other tribal power can make itself felt beforehand.

Upon other occasions in the same district, the footprint of a man, who has been decreed to die, might be found upon a clay-flat or a river bank. The track must be intact; if it be in the least degree imperfect, it is considered useless for the purpose. Taking for granted, then, that it is clear and well-defined, the mould is cut out of the clay in toto and buried in an anthill. There it is secreted until such time as the spirit of the doomed man’s father is supposed to be in attendance at a tribal ceremonial, when it is fetched and broken over a blazing fire. This act answers the same purpose as the burning of the resin and excrement in the previous case.

An old Arunndta custom was to “cut the shadow” of a man, who was to die, with a sharpened mussel-shell knife called “langa langa.”

When a man of the Worora tribe dies, his relatives resolve to avenge his death, which they suppose was the work of an enemy, whom they name. During the obsequies, a bone is taken from the arm of the deceased, usually the humerus, but occasionally the radius, and small portions cut or scraped off it, to be handed to the nearest of kin, who officiate as the avenging party. The little group sit facing the direction in which the supposed murderer is seen, or at any rate is known to be residing. Together they place some of the pieces of their relative’s bone, which they call “gibba,” into their mouths, and, after chewing them for a while, they spit the pulp towards their victim, at the same moment naming him as the perpetrator of the deed—the cause of their bereavement. The Sunday Islanders adopt a similar method, but refer to the bone as “käu-käu”.

Most of the tribes are in possession of differently shaped sticks and bones, with which the death-pointing is done. These are usually about three or four inches long, pointed at one or both ends, and containing a small bleb of resin at one end, to which a piece of human hair-string is attached. When the instrument is of bone, it is usually a piece of the dead man’s skeleton. The Aluridja take the fibula of the man whose death is to be avenged, and construct a flattish “bone,” pointed off at both ends. The Arunndta select the same bone, or the ulna, which they scrape down to a long tapering point at one end; to the opposite extremity they attach a little porcupine resin. Occasionally one finds these objects carried in hollow bone or bark-receptacles. Another common form of the Arunndta is a short stick, at either end of which a blunt arrow head knob is carved, round one of which a long piece of human hair-string is tied. A simple punctate design is at times burned into the stick. Some of the southern tribes of the Northern Territory have pointing stones, which are shaped much like a stone-knife, hafted with porcupine resin and suspended by a long piece of human hair-string.