The Native Tribes of North Central Australia: Chapter VI. Intichiuma Ceremonies

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1 totem. Only a very little of this is allowed to be eaten, and that only by the old people; but in this case the restriction is not confined to the members of the totem, but is of universal application, applying to every member of the tribe. There is no similar restriction applying to any other animal or plant, but, in the case of Achilpa, there are reasons given for not eating it which serve to show that for some cause or other this particular animal has associations with the tribe as a whole which do not exist in respect of any other. In the first place, it is supposed that any one, save an old man or woman, eating Achilpa would be afflicted with a special disease called Erkincha; and in the second, it is believed that if any man who had killed another at any time of his life were to eat this particular animal, then his spirit part or Yenka 2 would leave his body and he would soon be killed by some enemy, so that to a man who has ever killed another—and there are very few men who do not lay claim to this distinction—the Achilpa is tabu or forbidden for life, no matter what be his age. There are amongst the traditions dealing with the Achilpa of the Alcheringa, very explicit references to the Erkincha disease, though why this should be especially

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We may now describe the ceremonies of Intichiuma as they are performed in the case of certain of the totems. Each totem has its own ceremony and no two of them are alike; but though they differ to a very great extent so far as the actual performance is concerned, the important point is that one and all have for their sole object the purpose of increasing the number of the animal or plant after which the totem is called; and thus, taking the tribe as a whole, the object of these ceremonies is that of increasing the total food supply. To this question we shall have to return, as in connection with it there are certain points of very considerable interest.

Every local totemic group has its own Intichiuma ceremony, and each one is held at a time decided upon by the Alatunja under whose direction it is carried out. Any man who is a member of the totem can attend irrespective of the class to which he belongs, though, as we have already pointed out, the great majority of the members of any local group belong to one moiety of the tribe. In some cases men who are in the camp at the time when the ceremony is to be performed, and who belong to the right moiety of the tribe, are invited by the Alatunja to be present; but this is rather an exceptional thing, and under no circumstances are men who belong neither to the totem nor to the right moiety allowed to be present.

In connection with the times at which the ceremonies are held, it may be said that while the exact time is fixed by the Alatunja in each case, yet the matter is largely dependent on the nature of the season. The Intichiuma are closely

1 Walking again in single file they follow—led by the Alatunja—the path traversed by the celebrated Intwailiuka, the great leader of the Witchetty grubs in the Alcheringa, until they come to what is called the Ilthura oknira, which is placed high up on the western wall of the Gap. In this, which is a shallow cave, a large block of quartzite lies, and around it are some small rounded stones. The large mass represents the Maegwa, that is, the adult animal. The Alatunja begins singing and taps the stone with his Apmara, while all the other men tap it with their twigs, chanting songs as they do so, the burden of which is an invitation to the animal to lay eggs. When this has gone on for a short time they tap the smaller stones, which are Churinga unchima, that is, they represent the eggs of the Maegwa. The Alatunja then takes up one of the smaller stones and strikes each man in the stomach with it, saying, “Unga murna oknirra ulquinna” (“You have eaten much food”). When this has been done the stone is dropped and the Alatunja strikes the stomach of each man with his forehead, an operation which is called atnitta ulpilima. Leaving the Ilthura the men descend from the range to the bed of the creek in the Gap, and stop under the rock called Alknalinta, that is, the decorated eyes, where, in the Alcheringa, Intwailiuka used to cook, pulverise and eat the grub. The Alatunja strikes the rock with his Apmara, and each man does the same with his twigs, while the older men again chant invitations to the animal to come from all directions and lay eggs. At the base of the rock, buried deeply in the sand, there is supposed to be a very large Maegwa stone.

It was at this spot that Intwailiuka used to stand while he threw up the face of the rock numbers of Churinga unchima, which rolled down again to his feet; accordingly the Alatunja does the same with some of the Churinga which have been

1 bush are fixed so that they hang downwards. Nose bones are thrust through the nasal septum, and rat tails and topknots of cockatoo feathers are worn in the hair. The Alatunja is but little decorated; he has only the Chilara across his forehead, and the Lalkira or nose bone. Under his arm he carries the Apmara, and in his hand a twig of the Udnirringa bush. While the men walk along they keep their twigs in constant motion, much as if they were brushing off flies. The totem Ilkinia or sacred design is painted on the body of each man with red ochre and pipe clay, and the latter is also used to paint the face, except for the median line of red. When the decorations are complete a start is again made, all walking in single file, the Alatunja at the head with his Apmara under his arm. Every

1 make a fire and strip themselves of all their ornaments, throwing away their Udnirringa twigs. When all the Uliara, Imitnya, Lalkira and cockatoo feathers are removed, the Alatunja says, “Our Intichiuma is finished, the Mulyanuka must have these things or else our Intichiuma would not be successful, and some harm would come to us.” They all say, “Yes, yes, certainly;” and the Alatunja calls to the Mulyanuka (i.e. men of the other moiety of the tribe), who are at the Ungunja, that is the men's camp, to come up, and the things are divided amongst them, after which the old man, who before brought them food, goes to the various camps and collects a considerable quantity of vegetable food which is given to him by the women. This is brought back and cooked and eaten by the fire, where they still remain. During the afternoon the old man again visits the camp, and brings back with him some red ochre and the fur string which belongs to the various members of the party, and, just before sundown, the old men rub red ochre over their bodies, and over those of the younger men, thus obliterating the Ilkinia and the painting on the face. The men then put on their arm strings, &c., and return to their respective camps, and with this the main part of the ceremony is brought to a close. When all is over, the

1 OR HONEY-ANT TOTEM

 

In this ceremony, as performed at Ilyaba, the majority of men are Panunga and Bulthara, only a few Kumara and Purula belonging to the totem.

At early morning on the appointed day the men assemble at the men's camp, where they decorate their foreheads, arms and noses with twigs of the Udnirringa bush and smear their bodies all over with dry red ochre. Then they march in single file, the Alatunja at the head, to a spot about fifty yards from, and opposite to, the Erlukwirra or women's camp, where the women and children stand silently. Here the Alatunja, turning his back upon the women, places his hand as if he were shading his eyes and gazes away in the direction of the Intichiuma ground, each man as he does so kneeling behind him so as to form a straight line between the women and the Intichiuma ground. In this position they remain for some time, while the Alatunja chants in subdued tones. After this has been done, all stand up, and the Alatunja goes to the rear of the column and gives the signal to start. In perfect silence and with measured step, as if something of the greatest importance were about to take place, the men walk in single file, taking a direct course to the ground. Every few yards the Alatunja, who is in the rear, goes out first to one side and then to the other, to see that the men keep a straight line.

1 of the Alcheringa, named Ilatirpa,

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The old Alatunja takes up the Churinga, and calling the men up one by one, each of them walks into the pit, and lies down, partly supported on the knees of two or three of the older men. In this position the Alatunja, keeping up all the time a low chant, first of all strikes each man's stomach sharply two or three times with the Churinga, and then moves it about with a kind of kneading action, while another old man butts at the stomach with his forehead. When all have passed through this performance the singing ceases, the Churinga is handed back to the man who brought it, with instructions to take it back to the Ertnatulunga, and the column forms again and marches back, taking a different course, which, however, just as on the first occasion, leads them past the women's camp, where again the women and children are standing in silence.

On the way home a halt is made at a spot in the Ilyaba creek, where in the Alcheringa, as now, the final act of the ceremony was performed. On the banks of the creek are a number of mulga trees, each of which is associated with, in fact is the Nanja tree of, an Alcheringa man, who stood watching the performance as it was being conducted in the bed of the creek. In the same way the stones standing out from the banks have each of them their association with an Alcheringa man. On arrival at this spot all the men sit down, and about an hour is spent in singing of the Yarumpa men, of their marchings in the Alcheringa, of the honey, of the ant nests, of the great man Ilatirpa, and of those Yarumpa men who, in the Alcheringa, changed into the little birds now called Alpirtaka, which at the present day are the mates of the honey-ant people, to whom they point out

1 The Alatunja of this group at the present time is

1 Here, at the base of a steep quartzite ridge, which runs east and west, and forms part of what is now called Chandler's Range, there lies under the shelter of a gum tree a small water-hole, which has ever since the far away times of the Alcheringa been associated with the members of the Okira or kangaroo totem. From

1 They became changed into stones, and have remained there ever since. He was not as yet fully grown, and was an Okira kurka, or a little kangaroo, and after a short time he set out to go to a place called Okirilpa. After he had travelled about three miles, he came to an open plain, upon which he saw a mob of Ukgnulia, or wild dogs, who had come from Okirilpa, and were then lying down close to their mother, who was very large. He hopped about looking at the wild dogs, and presently they saw and chased him, and, though he hopped away as fast as he could, they caught him on a plain called Chulina, and, tearing him open, eat first his liver, and then, removing the skin, they threw it on one side and stripped all the meat from off the bones. When they had done this they again lay down.

Ungutnika was not however completely destroyed, for the skin and bones remained, and, in front of the dogs, the skin came and covered the bones, and he stood up again and ran away, followed by the dogs, who caught him this time at Ulima, a hill a little to the north of a spot now called the Bad Crossing on the Hugh River. Ulima means the liver, and is so called because on this occasion the dogs did not eat the liver, but threw it on one side, and the hill, which is a dark-looking one, arose to mark the spot. The same performance was once more gone through, and again Ungutnika ran away, this time as far as Pulpunja, which is the name given to a peculiar sound made in imitation of little bats, and at this spot Ungutnika turned round and, jeering derisively at the dogs, made the noise. He was at once caught, cut open, and again reconstituted himself, much to the wonder of his pursuers. After this he ran straight towards Undiara, followed by the dogs, and when he reached a spot close to the water-hole they caught and eat him, and, cutting off his tail, buried it at the place where it still remains in the form of a stone, which is called the Churinga okira pura, or Kangaroo tail Churinga,

1 the leader clears away the sandy soil and brings the sacred stone into view. Its sides, worn smooth by constant rubbing, are covered over with smaller stones, amongst which is a special flattened one with which the rubbing is done. The Alatunja takes this stone in his hands, and in the presence of all the men, who stand round in perfect silence, rubs over the exposed surface. When this has been done the stone may be lifted up so as to be seen better. It is the Churinga okira pura, that is, the tail of the Alcheringa kangaroo, which was driven in by the wild dogs from Okirilpa, and deposited by them, as already described, in the ground at this spot. Certain large blocks of sandstone, which have evidently tumbled down from the hillside and lay close by—the largest of them being fully eight feet in height—are said to represent the dead bodies of the wild dogs.

After the stone has been rubbed by the Alatunja and then examined by all present, it is covered up and the party moves onward, still skirting the base of the hill, so that the cave and ceremonial stone are not seen until they are close at hand. A halt is made at the water-hole on the side away from the cave, where the men drink, and then come round

1 The totem of any man is regarded, just as it is elsewhere, as the same thing as himself; as a native once said to us when we were discussing the matter with him, “that one,” pointing to his photograph which we had taken, “is just the same as me; so is a kangaroo” (his totem). That they claim a special connection with, almost in certain respects a right to, their totemic animal or plant may be seen from the fact that, for example, in the witchetty grub totem, while the members of the latter do not eat it, or, at least, only sparingly themselves,

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The members of each totem claim to have the power of increasing the number of the animal or plant, and in this respect the tradition connected with Undiara, the great centre of the kangaroo totem, just as the Emily gap is the great centre of the Witchetty grub totem, is of especial interest. In the Alcheringa, as we have already described, a special kangaroo was killed by kangaroo men and its body brought to Undiara and deposited in the cave close by the water hole. The rocky ledge arose to mark the spot, and into this entered its spirit part and also the spirit parts of many other kangaroo animals (not men) who came subsequently and, as the natives say, went down into the earth here. The rock is in fact the Nanja stone of the kangaroo animals, and to them this particular rock has just the same relationship as the water hole close by has to the men. The one is full of spirit kangaroo animals just as the other is full of spirit men and women. The purpose of the Intichiuma ceremony at the present day, so say the natives, is by means of pouring out the blood of kangaroo men upon the rock, to drive out in all directions the spirits of the kangaroo animals and so to increase the number of the animals. The spirit kangaroo

1 man, the decoration on the head referred to an Idnimita (grub of beetle) man who was killed by this Oruncha. The man was carrying with him Idnimita grubs, which were specially represented in the decorations, and on which he was feeding.

In a Chankuna (small edible berry) ceremony a Chankuna man was represented as eating the berries which he plucked from his beard.

At a spot called Erathippa a plum tree woman was out finding plums to eat when a man came and stole her Nurtunja which she had left in camp.

An Irpunga (fish) man was seen by certain wild cat men during their wanderings, fishing in a small pool to catch the fish on which he fed.

An opossum man was robbed by another man of the moon which he carried about with him at night time so as to help him to catch opossums.

During the wanderings of a party of wild cat men they are reported to have come to a certain spot where they met some men who were what is called Ulpmerka of the plum tree totem. The wild cat men went into the earth and arose as plum tree men, and after that went on eating plums.

A bandicoot woman started out with a Hakea woman. After some time, she, the bandicoot woman, made Quabara undattha, that is performed a sacred ceremony, and painted the Hakea woman with down used during the ceremony, thus changing her into a bandicoot woman, after which, says the tradition, the latter went on feeding upon bandicoot.

1 The idea of a kangaroo man freely eating a kangaroo or a bandicoot woman feeding on bandicoots is so totally opposed to the present custom of the tribe that we are obliged to regard these traditions as referring to a past time when customs in respect of the totems were different from what they are now.

In his Vocabulary of the Dialects of South-Western Australia, 2 Sir George Grey, when giving the meaning of certain of the native names for totems, says, in regard to the Ballaroke, a small opossum, “Some natives say that the Ballaroke family derived their name from having in former times subsisted principally on this little animal”; and again of the Nag-karm totem, he says, “From subsisting principally in former times on this fish, the Nagarnook family are said to have obtained their name.” In regard further to five totemic groups, which bear the names of birds, he says, that they, that is the

1 has suggested in the case of certain other tribes in which the totem is eaten, the respect for the totem has lessened in comparison with what it once was; but, in face of the solemn ceremony of Intichiuma and of the explicit traditions to which reference has been made, it is difficult to believe that this can be so. The two traditions, in one of which a bandicoot woman is stated to have changed her companion, a Hakea woman, into a bandicoot woman, who after that went on feeding on bandicoot, while in the other a euro man is described as changing himself into a kangaroo man for the purpose of being able to pursue, kill and eat a kangaroo, are perhaps sufficient to show, taken in

1 viz., “A totem is a class of material objects which a savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there exists between him and every member of the class an intimate and altogether special relation;” and further still we can see, to use Mr. Frazer's terms, the existence of both a social and a religious aspect. The former is not so strongly developed as it is in many other Australian tribes, amongst whom not only does the totem regulate marriage, but the members of the totem are bound to mutually assist one another. In the Arunta tribe the most striking feature from a social point of view is the strongly local character, though at the same time it must be remembered that any initiated member of a particular totem, whatever local group he belongs to, may take part in the totemic ceremonies. The religious aspect is most clearly seen in connection with the ceremonies of Intichiuma and the subsequent solemn eating of the totem, though here again the relationship between the man and his totem cannot be described as one “of mutual respect and protection.” 2 It seems as if, in the case of the Central Australian tribes, the totemic system has undergone a somewhat curious development; at all events, it differs in certain respects from that of all other Australian tribes with which we are as yet acquainted.

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Footnotes

168:1 This is Dasyurus geoffroyi.

168:2 A man's spirit when he is alive is called Yenka; when dead his spirit part is called Ulthana.

169:1 If we were to hazard a suggestion in the attempt to explain the origin of the restriction, it would lie along the following lines. The Achilpa, as shown in the traditions of the tribe, may very probably be looked upon as a powerful group of individuals who at some past time marched over the country. Possibly they brought with them the disease, at least it is suggestive in this respect that tradition refers the disease to them and to the members of no other totem and, as communication with the individuals of the totem resulted in the spread of the disease, so the idea of danger associated with any connection with it not unnaturally extended from the human Achilpa to the animal itself, and thus the latter became tabu. It may also be noticed that Erkincha is prevalent amongst young and not amongst old people, and that this is parallel with the tabu not applying strictly to old men and women.

172:1 This is not especially made for the purpose, but is an ordinary small pitchi, such as the women use for scooping the earth out of burrows, and is always provided by a daughter of the Alatunja.

175:1 The totemic animal takes its name from this shrub, on which the grub feeds.

178:1 The Ungunja is a special part of the main camp where the men assemble, and near to which no woman may go. In the same way the women have their special part, called Erlukwirra, near to which no man may go.

186:1 Yarumpa is the Arunta name for the “honey-ant” (Camponotus inflatus, Lubbock).

187:1 Oknirabata means a great instructor or teacher, and is at the present day applied to the wise old men who are learned in tribal customs and teach them to the others. It is a name only given to men who are both old and wise. The individual represented in Fig. 9 is a famous Oknirabata.

188:1 For the exact contents of this Ertnatulunga, see p. 141.

189:1 The word Qnatcha, strictly speaking, means water. Rain is Quatcha untima, or falling water, running water is Quatcha wilima. Quatcha by itself is, however, often used to mean rain, and the name Kartwia quatcha is applied because the rain-makers of this locality are celebrated for their powers.

193:1 The interesting fact that an important ceremony, “designed to secure successful kangaroo hunts,” and consisting in the letting of blood, was held at this spot, was first recorded by Dr. Stirling, who, in the Report of the Horn Expedition, Part iv., p. 67, has given an account of the spot, which is therein called Antiarra. After repeatedly hearing it pronounced by a large number of natives, we have adopted the spelling Undiara.

197:1 The ceremony of producing evil magic at this spot is described in the chapter dealing with magic.

200:1 There is nothing on the surface to indicate that anything lies hidden beneath, but the native who showed us the stone went straight to the place and unearthed it.

202:1 The people of the emu totem very rarely eat the eggs, unless very hungry and short of food, in which case they would eat, but not too abundantly. If an emu man found a nest of eggs, and was very hungry, he might cook one, but he would take the remainder in to camp and distribute them. If he were not very hungry all the eggs would be distributed. The flesh of the bird may be eaten sparingly, but only a very little of the fat; the eggs and fat are more ekirinja or tabu than the meat. The same principle holds good through all the totems, a carpet snake man will eat sparingly of a poor snake, but he will scarcely touch the reptile if it be fat.

206:1 Journals of Two Expeditions, vol. ii., p. 228.

208:1 Oruncha is the native name for a mischievous spirit.

209:1 Wild cat men, for example, are represented constantly as feeding upon plums; certain lizards on grass seed, while others fed exclusively on lizards; quails on grass seed, etc.

209:2 As quoted by Mr. McLennan, Studies in Ancient History, second series, p. 496.

210:1 Totemism, p. 19.

211:1 Op. cit. p. 1.

211:2 Op. cit. p. 20.