154 Proceediiujsi of t/ie Royal Society of Victoria. 



animal ancestors that every member of the tribe is born, and 

 therefore when born, he or she, bears of necessity the name of tne 

 animal, or plant, of which the alcheringa ancestor was a transfor- 

 mation or descendant. 



The nature of these performances may be gathered from one 

 which was, in this instance, enacted on the seventh day. As 

 usual in all these performances the man's body is decorated with 

 ochre and lines of bird's down, which is supposed to be arranged 

 in exactly the same way in which it had been on the body of the 

 Alcheringa man. From the waist is suspended a large ball of 

 fur-string which is supposed to represent the scrotum of the 

 kangaroo, and when all is ready, the performer, who has been 

 decorated behind the brake where the men sit, comes out hopping 

 leisurely along as a kangaroo does, and every now and then lying 

 down like the animal on his side to rest. The boy, as before, has 

 l)een brought, blindfolded, on to the ground and at first is made 

 to lie flat down, but, when the performer hops out, he is told to 

 sit up and watch. The performer for about ten minutes goes 

 through the characteristic movements of the animal, acting the 

 part very clevei'ly, while the men sitting around the Wurtja sing 

 of the wandering of the kangaroos across the country in the 

 Alcheringa. Then after a final and very leisurely hop round the 

 Apulia ground the man comes and lies down on top of the 

 Wurtja who is then instructed in the tradition to which the 

 performance refers. He is told that in the Alcheringa a party of 

 of kangaroo-men started out from a place called Ultainta away 

 out to the east of what is now called Charlotte AVaters, and that 

 after wandering about they came at last to a spot called Karinga, 

 far away to the north in the Macdonnell Ranges, where one of 

 the party who was named Unlmrtcha died, that is his body did 

 but the spii-it part of him was in a sacred Churinga which he 

 carried, and did not die but remained behind when the party 

 travelled on. This spirit, the old men tell him, went at a later 

 time into a woman and was born again as a Purula man, whose 

 sacred name was of course Unburtcha, and who was a kangaroo- 

 man just as his ancestor was. He is told that the old men know 

 everything about these matters and decide which ancestor it is 

 who has come to life again in the form of a man or woman. 

 Sometimes the spirit child which goes into a woman is one which 



