CHAPTER V

SACRED STICKS, BULL-ROARERS, AND CEREMONIAL OBJECTS

ONE Of the most striking features in regard to the sacred and totemic ceremonies of the Northern, as compared with the Central, tribes is the comparative absence of the equivalents of the Churinga and such ceremonial objects as Nurtunjas and Waningas that form so striking a feature of the Arunta tribe. It is, of course, possible that such, or their equivalents, exist, indeed, the Kakadu and allied tribes have an extensive series of sacred stick and stones, but these are not used during ordinary totemic ceremonies in the same way in which the Churinga are amongst the Arunta, nor have they the same significance as the Churinga.

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So far as I could discover there are no bull-roarers used amongst the Melville and Bathurst Island natives, nor on the mainland amongst the following tribes:--Koarnbut, Quiradara, Norweilemil, Punuurlu, Kumertuo, Geimbio, Noalanji and Kakadu. These form a large group of allied tribes inhabiting the Coburg Peninsula and the north coast drained by the Alligator Rivers, the King, and the Liverpool, etc.

At all events, as we pass from the centre to the north, the beliefs with regard to the sacred sticks and stones have a decided tendency to become simpler, and in none of the northern tribes does there appear to be any tradition with regard to the association of any particular bull-roarer with a special ancestor. Nor do we meet with anything corresponding to the Ertnatulunga or sacred storing places in which the Arunta preserve their Churinga.

In every instance the women and children believe that the noise made by twirling the roarer is the voice of a great spirit that comes to carry off the boy during initiation and in no case is a woman allowed to see one. This belief, held by the women and children, is apparently widely spread over the whole of Central and Northern Australia and was probably, at one time, universal in its distribution amongst Australian tribes. It is equally true that the youths are, everywhere and always, at the time of initiation, told that the noise is not the voice of a spirit but is made by the bull-roarer. They are also warned that on no account must they speak of it to the women and children. These sticks are amongst those objects that the Arunta speak of as being Ekeirinja, the Mungarai, makugua, and the Kakadu, kumali; all of which words signify that they are of such a nature that Only initiated men may see or know anything about them.

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In the Larakia tribe they are called Bidu-Bidu (Plate II, Figs. 3, 4). Each is a thin slab of wood, a foot or eighteen inches in length and three or four inches In greatest width, near to one end which is rounded. The other end is truncate with a square hole in it through which string is threaded. The string is usually made of human hair and is about three or four yards in length. As the roarer is whirled through the air it becomes twisted round and round until it is taut, and then it vibrates, producing the characteristic sound to which the popular name of the wooden slab is due. The Bidu-Bidu is shown^[1] to the youths during initiation. It is supposed to be full of magic power and must be rubbed over the bodies of the old men before they can be handled with safety by the youths. If they were not rubbed in this way and some of their magic thereby transferred to the men, they would cause the bodies of the youths to swell up. The latter are allowed to carry them about and they are supposed to enable them to catch fish and game and find out where "sugar-bags" can be secured. When the whole ceremony is over and the youths, who are now admitted to the status of Belier, return to their camp and ordinary life, the Bidu-Bidu are broken up and completely destroyed by fire. This is very different indeed from what takes place in the Central tribes, amongst whom the loss or destruction of a Churinga is a very serious matter.

If a woman should, by any chance, see a Bidu-Bidu while it is being carried about by a Belier youth, the old man men immediately send a message to a medicine man living in a distant part of the country called Bebiba. The medicine man, who is known as Kuldungun, comes at once but can only be seen by the old men, who meet him

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and point out the offending Belier and woman. The medicine man takes the kidney fat out of each of them, sews them up, and lets them go. This is done without their being aware of it but, after a short time, each of them suddenly suffers severe pain and dies. Their death is generally attributed to snake bite, but the old men know what has really happened.

In the Worgait tribe the sticks are called Bidu-Bidu or Bidju-Bidju and the customs or beliefs associated with them are practically the same as those in the Larakia.

In the Iwaidja tribe at Port Essington the sticks are called Kurabudji and are shown to the young men during the initiation ceremony that admits them to the status of Naialpur. The old men, first of all, rub their own bodies with them, so as to modify the magic with which they are filled, and then place them on the hands of the youths, who, after examining them, hand them back again. At various times the bodies of the youths are rubbed with the Kurabudji, sometimes while they are standing up, sometimes while they are lying down.

In the Djauan tribe the sticks are called Kunapippi, or Kunabibbi, and the general beliefs in regard to them are closely similar to those of the Larakia and Worgait. There is) however, this great difference, they are not destroyed after the ceremony in which they are used is over, but are carefully stored away in places known only to the old men. This is interesting because the Djauan tribe inhabits country around and to the south of the Katherine River, and thus is in contact with the northernmost of the true Central tribes amongst whom the Churinga are handed down from generation to generation.

In the Mungarai tribe the sticks are also called Kunapippi. They are considerably larger than those of the Larakia, reaching a length of two and a half feet, and

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are carried by messengers, who go out to summon members of distant groups to take part in sacred Ceremonies (Plate II). They are made from the wood of the india-rubber tree, and the women and children think the sound they make is the voice of a spirit called ngagurnguruk. They are preserved in certain sacred spots which are very suggestive, in one important respect, of the ertnatulunga of the Arunta. Any animal at or quite close to one of the latter must not be killed; it is, for the time being, strictly ekeirinja. The custom is not quite so strict in the case of the sacred spots amongst the Mungarai, where the sticks are secreted, but if any animal, such as a kangaroo, be killed on the spot, or close by, only the old men may eat it; no young man, woman, or child must touch it.

The Mungarai have a detailed tradition dealing with the way in which they first became possessed of the sticks. In the far away times that they call Kurnallan there existed a very big man named Kunapippi. He existed before there were any of the present-day black-fellows, and is reported to have had plenty of dilly bags. Also he had plenty of spirit children, all boys and no girls, whom he carried in his bags. For some time he sang out, like the men do now when they perform sacred ceremonies, quivering his hand in front of his mouth so as to make the sound called Tjungulamma.

He had, at first, been underground, but he came out and made a camp with a raised bank all round it, and cut a large quantity of grass that he placed on the ground in the centre. This over, he brought the boys out of his dilly bags and put them on the grass. He possessed several of the sacred sticks, called, like himself, Kunapippi. He had made them, and was the first to have any. Then he made forehead bands for the boys, and decorated then'

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in just the same way in which the natives now decorate the youths during the initiation ceremony.

He divided the boys up, first into two groups, called Nakarangua and Ngaballana, half of them in each. First of all he took the Nakarangua and told each one of them the jakina (sub-class) to which he belonged. To one boy he said, jakina nunji ngaritjbellan, to another, jakina nunji ngabullan, and so on. Then he took the Ngaballana and said to one man, jakina nunji ngaburella, to another, jakina nunji ngangiella, and so on, until, at last, each boy had received his proper jakina, or sub-class, name.

Kunapippi himself belonged to no special class or totem group; he belonged to everything, and was a very big man, with a very big foot.

After he had given the boys their jakina he gave them their namaragua (totem) names. Before, however, he actually did this he showed them all the different corrobborees, or ceremonies, telling them to which totemic group each of them belonged. These special corrobborees are called Tjon. He began to perform them at sundown and kept them up all night long, making Tjungulamma continuously. Just before sunrise he painted two boys, told them what to do and how to dance, and then sat down and watched them. At sunrise they had a short rest. Then he started again and told the boys to paint themselves--some were crocodiles, some galah parrots, some emu, etc., right through all the namaragua, or totem groups--and, again, told each of them to which he belonged, or, rather, which belonged to him, saying to one man, namaragua nunji warmin, your totem (is) euro; to another, namaragua nunji nanung, your totem (is) sugar-bag, and so on right through the whole list.

After concluding the ceremonies and instructions to the boys, Kunapippi went away and caught a lot of fish,

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crocodiles, turtles, etc., filled his baskets, and brought them back into camp for the boys to eat. He took One of his Kunapippi sticks with him, and, when he came back near to the camp, twirled it to let the boys know that he was close by. The boys jumped up when they saw him coming, carrying the animals that he had captured. They had never seen any of them before, and) after Kunapippi had told them their names, they ate them all up. They did not bite the food, but simply gobbled it down. Everybody ate some of everything. This over, Kunapippi took two boomerangs, the boys painted themselves, and, while he kept time, they danced their own corrobborees, or Tjon, so that they would know them in future.

After this, Kunapippi performed the ceremonies of circumcision and subincision, and showed them how to conduct the operations.

Other natives from a distant part now came up. They had no jakina and no namaragua and had left their women behind them. When they came near to his camp Kunapippi said to them, Jakina nimmo nunji, what is your jakina? The natives did not know and could not answer. They simply stood up in silence. Kunapippi did not allow them to come close to the ceremonial camp. First of all he divided them into Nakarangua and Ngaballana. Then he gave each man his proper jakina (sub-class) and namaragua (totem) and, also, told them which was the right lubra for each man to marry, because, up to this time, they had taken any lubra. Tradition relates, without giving any reason for it, that Kunapippi then killed and ate all of them except two, who managed to escape. Later on he disgorged all their bones and when, after a time, the two men came back they found nothing but these, because Kunapippi had eaten all the flesh.

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The two men hastened back to their own country and, meeting with a number of their own people, told them what had happened. The men all armed themselves with stone tomahawks, and crept quietly up towards the camp where Kunapippi was sitting down with his boys. They came up silently and, making a sudden rush, one man hit him in the back and another on the side with an axe. After he had been thus wounded, a man ran up, hit him on the back of the neck and killed him. Before this he had eaten two of his own boys, but they cut him open and rescued them alive.

Kunapippi's boys then mixed with the strangers and instructed them in all things concerning the jakina and namaragua. They also made the different corrobborees and showed them to the men and, in addition, they told them how to conduct the operations of circumcision and subincision. Finally they secured the sacred sticks that belonged to Kunapippi and have kept and used them ever since.

At the present day no lubra is allowed to see any of the sacred objects, but the Mungarai tribe has a tradition which purports to show that such was not always the case, but that, just as amongst the Arunta and other tribes, if any credence may be placed on traditions, there was a time when women were allowed to see and know a good deal more than they do now.

Not far from a water pool, called Crescent Lagoon, there is a range of hills rising somewhat abruptly from the Roper Plains over which, at one place, the water pours in torrents during the rain season. Here, in the far past times, there arose a woman of the Ngapalieri sub-class and kunapippi totem. She carried a netted string bag and, in this, her kunapippi wrapped up in paper bark. From Miram-mi-idji, where she left many

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spirit children, she walked underground and came out at a place called Winjerri, where there is a big hill and water hole, close by a cattle station now called Hodgson Downs. Here she left more spirit children and, coming out above ground, walked along, swinging her bull-roarer as she did so.

At Kunjerri she met a number of other kunapippi women who were making corrobborees and joined in with them. A man, named Kumkum, a Ngapalieri man of the fish-hawk totem, who, like all of these old ancestors, was supposed to have arisen "by himself," came up to them, wearing a forehead band. The women had finished their corrobboree before they discovered that he had been watching them. They at once hid their kunapippi in the ground, wrapped in paper bark. Kumkum, of course, had seen what they were doing, but he asked them what they had hidden. They replied that they had hidden some things belonging to them. Then he came right up into their camp and unearthed the kunapippi, saying, "What have you got here? They are good ones; I will take them." He did so and went away leaving the women at Kunjerri where, finally, they went into the ground. Since that day no lubra has ever possessed a kunapippi.

Perhaps the most interesting of the sacred ceremonial objects that I came across amongst these Northern Tribes, were a very considerable number of sticks and stones associated with different totemic animals and plants in the Kakadu tribe. They are associated with a special ceremony called Muraian. which appears to form the last of the initiation series in the Kakadu and allied tribes, and I have already referred to them in connection with this subject.'

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A representative series is illustrated in Plates III, IV, V, VI, and VII, those on Plate III serving to give a good idea of the nature of the colour decorations. As a general rule, amongst the Central Australian natives, sacred objects such as these, which are supposed to be closely associated with, and, in fact, to represent animals and plants, have not the slightest resemblance in form to the latter. This Is equally true of most of the Muraian objects, but, on the other hand, there are a few that form rather striking exceptions to this rule. The three turtles on Plate IV. are unmistakably suggestive of the animal, especially the one represented in Fig. 1, though, at the same time, the colour decoration is purely conventional. This particular one is supposed to be the Muraian itself. Its total length was sixteen and its greatest width seven and a half inches. The body had a concavity of not more than an inch and a half. The whole surface, and this seems to be true of all these Muraian objects, was covered, first of all, with a coating of red ochre. The band all round the margin and the two pairs of bands running at right angles to one another are yellow. All the light lines, dots and bands are pure white. Fig. 2 measures twenty inches in length, and six in width. Fig. 3 measures thirteen in length and six in width. Neither of these has any indication of a tail, but each of them has eyes, and the decorative scheme is almost identical. The only difference between the two lies in their shape and in the fact that the two longitudinal lines running along the length of the object in one case are yellow and in the other red. Neither of them has any concavity in the body.

On Plate III., Fig. 1 represents a fish, called Bararil. It is quite flat, two feet in greatest length, and about five inches in greatest width. One end is evidently indicative of a head, with an eye, and the other suggests a tail. {p. 120} Fig. 2, which measures twenty-seven inches in length, is decidedly conventionalised; but its long, thin form and extended beaks suggest, to a slight extent, a bird such as the native companion, which it is supposed to represent. Fig. 3 is interesting when compared with those on Plate 1. Like them, it is supposed to represent a turtle. It is twenty-two inches in length, with a distinctly concave body, tapering rapidly to a tail at one end, while at other there is a projecting part that, presumably, represents a neck and head. All the remaining objects on this plate are supposed to represent yams, to which, with possibly a slight exception in the case of Fig. 5, they have not the slightest resemblance.^[1]

On Plate V., Fig. 1, which measures forty-four inches in length, four and a half in greatest width, and about three-quarters in thickness, represents a snake, called Tjungoan, to which it has not the slightest resemblance. It has been, first of all, coated all over with yellow ochre, and on this designs, consisting of cross-hatched lines of white pipe clay have been laid down, leaving bands and spaces of yellow. Figs. 2 and 3 represent, respectively, a female and a male Numereji snake. Numereji snakes and snake men and snake women figure largely in the traditions of the Kakadu tribe. Both of these two may be said to be suggestive of snakes in general form. In the lower one of the two, which measures thirty-seven inches in length, the more pointed end is the head. The whole surface was originally covered with light red ochre. There are three series of transverse bands. The one nearest the head end consists of three, a dark red, crossed by white lines, between two yellow ones. The middle series has two dark red bands, and, between them, a broader light

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red crossed by white lines. At the hinder end there is a similar light red band between two yellow ones. Along what is supposed to indicate the middle of the under surface (shown uppermost in the figure) there are, in the middle part, a series of light red squares, crossed by lines of white and outlined by yellow, which are supposed to represent the specially large median row of scales on the under-surface of the snake. In the hinder part their place is taken by a series of dark red bands separated by white.

The decoration of the upper of the two Numereji snakes is simpler. It measures forty-seven inches in length, and has a very distinct head, with mouth and teeth. and eye with black pupil and red iris. There are cross bands of yellow on the back, bands of light red along the under-surface, and the tail end is dark red.

Fig. 4, represents a yam, called Murlappa. It is simply a stick, circular in outline, forty-nine inches long, and one and a-quarter in diameter. It is covered all over with red ochre, and, at. roughly, a foot from each end, there are circles knotched round, the grooves being blackened and the raised part between them whitened. Between the two series all the middle of the stick is twined round and round with string decorated like the gaily coloured feathers of the Blue Mountain parakeet. Fig. 5 also represents a yam, called Tjunara. It is forty-nine inches long, two in width. and is flattened from side to side. It is, as usual, red ochred, and has knotched circles picked out in black. Fig. 6 is forty-six inches long, and is a simple, round stick with a ground work of light red, and spaces filled in with cross-hatched white lines. It represents a fish called Bararil. Fig. 7 is equally simple. In the middle part of one surface there is a patch of white spots on the usual red ground; in front of and behind

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this the white is solid, and in the opposite surface there is the usual cross-hatching of white lines. The remainder of the surface is red, and the whole stick has a slight curve, which is evidently intentional. It represents, also, a yam.

Plate VI represents a series of the Muraian objects all of which agree in one feature, which is the presence of a very distinct fork at one end. Fig. 1 represents an Eribinjori, or large crocodile. It measures twenty-eight inches in length, and has a slightly swollen end indicating the head, with two black dots and white lines round them to represent eyes. The ground colour is red. Fig. 2 is thirty inches in length and represents a small fish, called Jimidauappa. It has two small squares representing eyes and is decorated with tassels of white cockatoo feathers. Fig. 3 represents an animal called Mudburungun. It is forty-five inches long; has two holes bored through, close to the fork, representing eyes through which are threaded tassels of owl feathers. The middle part is wound round with close-set strands of vegetable fibre string, and the general surface colour is red. Figs. 4 and 5 both represent a bird, called Karakera, the spur-winged plover. In the lower one, which has a length of forty-three inches, the cross bands are yellow, the remainder of the surface is red with the usual cross-hatching of white lines, and, in one part, circles of yellow, centred and bordered with white spots. The upper one measures forty inches, the cross bands are yellow with, also, a yellow band along each edge bearing a line of white dots. The remainder of the surface is red with white cross lines. Both of them are elliptical in section, and they are supposed to be, what the natives call, "mates." The one represented in Fig. 4 differs from all the others in having a different

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design on the two sides. The oblong space, in the middle, crossed with white dots and cross lines, is replaced on the other side by a design somewhat like that immediately to the right hand of it in the illustration; the latter was replaced by simple, cross-hatched white lines. This is the only one on which the two sides differed. Fig. 6 represents a small fish called Jimidauappa. It measures thirty-eight inches in length. Two eyes are indicated; the five oblongs with white cross lines have a red ground; the rest of the surface is yellow. Fig. 7 represents a large bird, the Australian stork, called jabiru, the native name of which is Brutpenniweir. It measures forty-two inches in length. The two dots are presumably meant for eyes. They are on a yellow ground, all the rest of the surface being red. Fig. 8 represents the same bird. The dark cross bands are yellow, a band of the same colour running along each side. The groundwork of the oblong spaces with lozenge-shaped centres and white cross lines and spots is red. Fig. 9 measures fifty-four inches in length; at the broader end it is elliptical in section, measuring two and a-half inches by one and a-quarter. The whole surface is red with white, cross-hatched lines and spots. Two elongate holes are evidently modifications of former eyes, and each of them has, threaded through it, a tassel of white and black feathers. Fig. 10 is one of the largest of the series, measuring Sixty inches in length. It represents an old crocodile or Eribinjori. The tips of the two prongs are light red, their lower parts are white. Then comes a band of dark red, an inch in width. Then comes a band, two and a-half inches across, with a light red ground and white lines and dots, as seen in the figure, the circle, surrounded by the white dots, being a dark red. Then

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comes a three-quarter inch band of dark red, the three-inch band of light red, with white bands and lines and an oblong hole through the centre. The rest of the surface is dark red, the greater portion being covered with close-set, white cross lines, a line of white spots running along each edge.

In addition to the sticks there are also stones that are associated with the Muraian ceremonies. I saw altogether twenty-nine of these, a few of which are represented on Plate VII. They are all of them naturally shaped stones, for the most part, apparently, sandstone. They all represent objects such as yams to which they approximate in shape, or the eggs of different animals. In most cases the stone seems to have been rubbed over first with red ochre, in a very few yellow ochre has been used, and then, just as in the case of the sticks, white cross lines and dots have been added. Fig. 1 represents the egg of Eribinjori, the large crocodile, and measures four inches in greatest diameter, and six inches in length, and one and three-quarters in width. Fig. 2 represents a Kudjalinga, or turtle's egg, the design in the centre suggests an attempt to portray the animal with its head and front feet. It measures seven inches in length, four and one-quarter in width, and is decidedly convex on the surface shown, and flat on the under one. Fig. 3 is a curiously flat stone, seven and a-half inches in length by three in width and one and a quarter in thickness, and represents a special yam called Gunumaramila. Fig. 4 represents a lily root, called Purijiliji, and Fig. 5, the smallest of them all, represents the egg of a Mundebendo, or wild turkey. Fig. 6 is a lily root or Worki, one of the most staple and favourite foods of the natives; Fig. 7 is the Iwaija Kopereipi, or emu egg, one of the earliest and most important of the Muraian stones, and Fig. 8 is the

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Kulori yam, which is associated with one of the most important initiation ceremonies.

These will serve to give some idea of the nature of these Muraian sticks and stones which are a peculiar feature of the Kakadu nation, so far as we know at present. They differ from the Churinga of the Arunta both in form and significance. The Churinga proper are wonderfully consistent in shape, whether they be made of wood or stone. They are typically flattened from side to side and decorated with incised patterns, whereas the Muraian objects vary very much in shape and may even, as we have seen, bear a crude resemblance to the animal with which they are associated. It Is interesting, in this respect, to compare a series of Muraian sticks such, for example, as the turtle (Plate IV., Fig. 1) and the turtle (Plate III., Fig. 3); the two Numereji snakes (Plate V., Figs. 2 and 3); the native companion (Plate III., Fig. 2) and the spur-winged plover (Plate VI., Fig. 4); the Bararil fish (Plate III., Fig. 1) and the Jimidauappa fish (Plate V., Fig. 6); and the yams (Plate III., Figs. 5-8). Of the turtles, the first is a fairly good representative of the animal and could not well be mistaken for anything else. The second is more like a trowel than a turtle, but the knowledge that it is really meant for a turtle enables a general fundamental resemblance to be detected. The upper of the two Numereji snakes is decidedly suggestive of the animal with its toothed jaws and banded body. The lower one is decidedly conventionalised both in form and decoration, three series of cross bands being emphasised. There is something In the shape of the Muraian object, representing the native companion, that suggests a bird, flying through the air, with its long beak, head, and neck extended straight in front; its body relatively small, and its legs stretched

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out behind. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the forked stick, which represents the spur-winged plover, has anything whatever to do with a bird, beyond the fact that the two prongs may well be remnants of the indication of a long bill. So again the first of the two fishes has a decided suggestion of a fish-like form, but the second has none whatever and is purely conventional, the only indication of any relationship to an animal form being afforded by the two prongs which may represent the jaws, and two spots which certainly are vestiges of eyes. The first of the two yams, whilst conventionalised, does bear some resemblance to a swollen one, attached to a root, but the second is entirely unrecognisable as indicative of either an animal or a plant.

This series is of interest as showing the way in which, amongst these tribes, ceremonial objects have possibly been developed. In the first instance they may well have been designed to represent, with fair accuracy, the salient features of some animal or plant. In a climate such as that of the Northern Territory no wooden object lasts more than a certain time, so that these Muraian objects must have been remade time after time. It is quite possible that, when they were thus remade, the artificer endeavoured to reproduce, not the actual form of the animal or plant, but that of the original sacred object, as he remembered it. It is well known how copies, taken in succession, one after the other, of an original drawing, become so modified in the course of a relatively small series that the last bears no resemblance to the original--it has become completely conventionalised. It is possible that the Muraian objects show us a series that have not as yet become completely conventionalised but are on their way to this, and that, in course of time, had they been left alone, we might have had a series of sacred

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sticks and stones developed which would have shown no more resemblance to the animals and plants whose names they bear than do the Churinga, of the Arunta. There is, however, one important difference between the Muraian objects and the Churinga. The latter are associated with individual human beings, the former, save in the one case of the original Muraian, who was supposed to have been swimming about in the water in the form of a turtle, are always totemic animals or plants. They are very distinctly of this nature and thus differ markedly from the Churinga with each one of which a human being's spirit part is intimately associated. The Muraian of the Kakadu represent the essence, as it were, of the totemic animal or plant in just the same way in which the Churinga of the Arunta represent the essence of the human totemite, and these two sets of sacred objects indicate development of savage thought along two different lines. The Churinga of the Arunta and the beliefs associated with them are practically a thing of the past, for the tribe is now decimated in numbers and degenerate in habits. The Muraian of the Kakadu will not survive for long.

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