convey the heat to the wild thick (Waragal Cooleenth), so that he may wither and die. Hair from the head of an offender is treated in the same way, and with the same results.
The bag (Belang) in which Wer-raap carries his magic bones (bones of the emu, Kalk-barramill Mull-bang-goo-weet), and white stones (Warra-goop), is never out of sight. His treasures are sacred, and very valuable. As long as he keeps them he can never become sick; but sometimes his Len-ba-moorr become dissatisfied with him, and make his relics leave the bag and go into the bag of some other Wer-raap, and then, thus despoiled, he becomes sick and dies.
The doctor sometimes uses hot ashes and leaves of trees as a cure for pains. Sometimes he treads on the patient, and by strong pressure expels the noxious things that hurt him; but, as a rule, he can cure only by the help of his attendant spirits, Len-ba-moorr.
Some years ago a number of Aborigines encamped on the Yarra had amongst them some men who were in the habit of indulging in intoxicating liquors to excess. One of them, Barak, having indulged like the rest, became very sick. He could eat scarcely at all, and was indeed very ill. He attributed his illness, however, not to his bad habits, but to sorcery. Punty, a black from Gippsland, at this time visited the tribe, and Barak, on seeing him, requested him to go back to Gippsland and bring away his spears, which he said the Gippsland blacks were using in some way to his hurt. Punty said that he knew nothing of the spears, and would not go back. Barak immediately got behind Punty, and cut off some of his hair, and threatened that if he did not go back and fetch the spears he would kill him by treating the hair in the manner prescribed by the Wer-raap.[1] Barak and Punty fought, and the disturbance caused Mr. Green to interfere. Mr. Green told Barak that he had been tipsy, and had lost his spears. He took Punty's hair from Barak, and offered some of his own, in order that Wer-raap might make him (Mr. Green) sick;
- ↑ Mr. F. M. Hughan, who has had much intercourse with the Aborigines, has favored me with the following interesting anecdote:—"On one occasion, whilst travelling with sheep from a back nm to the Murray frontage, I observed that the black boy Jimmy, who was driving the ration-cart, occupied himself in pulling single hairs from his head and burning them slowly in fire, which was ignited at the ends of two pieces of bark laid together. This was continnue for so long a time that I became more than curious as to the why and wherefore, particularly as Jimmy kept up a constant succession of moaning undertones—interesting, doubtless, to the performer, but anything but cheering to me. At last I looked at the boy and said, 'Jimmy, what for you do like it that?' upon which he replied, 'Bale you yabber! You think it no good. You see bine-bye.' I did not ask him anything further until we got into camp; but I must confess to having wondered more than ever as to what his object tended. After supper, and whilst drawing away at my pipe, I tackled Jimmy again, and, after a good deal of verbal sparring, the secret oozed out. It appeared that some time previously a relative—brother, if I do not forget—of Jimmy's died, his death being caused, as the members of his tribe implicitly believed, by some one connected with another, and, of course, a hostile one; and it was to compass the decease of the unknown slayer of his relative that Jimmy had laid himself out, for he assured me that as the hair he burnt was consumed, so did the secret destroyer gradually pine away, till at last he would 'tumble down'—the blacks' expression for 'die'—and to bring about this glorions end Jimmy had resorted to the plan alluded to; and as he went at it with uuabated perseverance the next day, I can only suppose that he was gloating over the speedy downfall of a hidden foe."—MS., llth Dec. 1871.
