The Native Tribes of North Central Australia: Chapter XII. Customs Concerned with Knocking out of Teeth; Nose-Boring; Growth of Breasts; Blood, Blood-Letting, Blood-Giving, Blood-Drinking; Hair; Childbirth; Food Restrictions; Cannibalism

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In the case of boys the operation is performed away from the Intichiuma ground near to which they may not go, and at this ceremony women may be present, for with regard to the Intichiuma ground the same restriction applies to them as to boys. The performance is carried out in the same way as described, and the same rules apply with regard to the offering of food.

When a woman or girl is to be operated on, a little space is cleared near to the main camp where men and women all assemble, except only those who are Mura to the girl. A tribal Okilia sits down and the girl lies with her head in his lap, and the operation is conducted as in the case of the men and boys, being almost always performed by a tribal Okilia. The tooth when taken out is lifted up with the same guttural sound and thrown in the direction of the mother's Alcheringa camp. The girl now springs to her feet, and seizing a small pitchi which has been placed close at hand for the purpose,

1 in writing of certain Victorian natives, says, that on arriving at manhood, a youth was conducted by three leaders of the tribe into the recesses of the woods, where he remained two days and one night. Being furnished with a suitable piece of wood, he knocked out two of the front teeth

1 in an excellent account of the rite as practised amongst the natives of a New South Wales tribe, describes how a throwing stick was made, and with this the tooth was knocked out by means of hitting it with a stone. The last performance before the actual operation consisted in a man standing out with a shield in one hand and a club in the other, “striking the shield with the club, at every third stroke the whole party poised and presented their spears at him, pointing them inwards and touching the centre of the shield. This concluded the ceremonies previous to the operation; and it appeared significant of an exercise which was to form the principal business of their lives, the use of the spear.” Further on he says, “The natives when speaking of the loss of the tooth always use the word yor-lahng era-ba-diahng,” which “appears to be compounded of the name given to the spot where the principal scene takes place, and of the most material qualification that is derived from the whole ceremony, that is, the throwing of the spear.”

Though Collins does not state anything very definite with regard to whom the teeth were given, we can gather indirectly, but at the same time quite clearly, that they came into the possession of certain women. He says, “Ben-nil-long's sister and Da-ring-ha, Cole-be's wife, hearing the author express a great desire to become possessed of some of these

1 and may be looked upon as the equivalent of the first ceremony of throwing up and painting the boy.

VARIOUS CUSTOMS CONCERNED WITH BLOOD, BLOOD-LETTING, AND BLOOD-GIVING, &c.

 

In the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes a girl at the first time of menstruation is taken by her mother to a spot close to, but apart from, the Erlukwirra or women's camp, near to which no man ever goes. A fire is made and a camp formed by the mother, the girl being told to dig a hole about a foot or eighteen inches deep, over which she sits attended by her own and some other tribal Mia, who provide her with food, one or other of them being always with her, and sleeping by her side

1 “a

1 meanwhile it may be said here that, in broad outline, the Central Australian agree with the majority of Australian tribes in the general restriction according to which the totem is tabooed. That this has not, however, always been the case appears to be indicated by certain traditions in which we see very distinct references to the eating of the totem by the members, in fact the latter are represented as having a kind of prior claim to it for this purpose.

The only case in which there is any general restriction applying to the eating of an animal is in regard to the Achilpa, or “wild cat,” but in this instance there is something of a very special nature, as the restriction not only applies to members of the Achilpa totem but extends to every member of the tribe except the oldest men and women.

Apart from restrictions concerned with the totems, there are others which relate on the one hand to food which has been killed by special individuals, and on the other to food which may not be eaten by particular individuals at certain times of their lives.

1 two men had their bodies decorated with circles of white down which were supposed to represent the skulls of slain and eaten men. The performers themselves represented the Ulthana or spirits of the dead men wandering about in search of those who had killed and eaten them. In another ceremony two Achilpa men were engaged in cooking the body of a third; in another,

Footnotes

452:1 Any food is given except the totemic animal or plant of the recipient. This may possibly be a rudimentary form of the more elaborate ceremony of food-giving to novices described by Mr. Howitt in connection with the Jeraeil of the Kurnai tribe. Journ. Anth. Inst., May 1885, p. 317.

453:1 Trans. Phil. Soc. Victoria, vol. i., p. 72.

454:1 An Account of the English Colony of N.S.W., 1804, pp. 367–373.

460:1 In the tribes dealt with by Roth there does not appear to be the equivalent of this ceremony, what he describes as the first initiation ceremony of women being that of introcision, the equivalent of the Ariltha kuma ceremony amongst the central tribes, op. cil., p. 174.

467:1 Expedition in North West and Western Australia, 1841, vol. ii., p. 228.

468:1 Chapter VI.

473:1 Ingwurninga means bones; inkinja, arisen.