1 The widow is called Inpirta, which means the whitened one in reference to the pipeclay. Some times she smears over the pipeclay ashes from a fire, in which case she is called Ura-inpirta, ura meaning fire. In some of the more northern tribes, as for example amongst the Warramunga living on Tennant's Creek, the widows are not allowed to speak for sometimes as long a period as twelve months, during the whole of which time they communicate only by means of gesture language. In the latter they are so proficient that they prefer, even when there is no obligation upon them to do so, to use it in preference to speaking. Not seldom, when a party of women are in camp, there will be almost perfect silence and yet a brisk conversation is all the while being conducted on their fingers or rather with their hands and arms, as many of the signs are made by putting
Footnotes
500:1 Amongst the Warramunga tribe, the widow crops her hair short, and after cutting open the middle line of the scalp, runs a fire-stick along the wound, often with serious results.