68 Proceedings of the Royal Society oj Victoria. 



unable to fully corroborate this, though it seems possible that, 

 when the custom prevailed to an abnormal extent, such a course 

 was adopted to prevent excessive bloodshed. 



It is usually stated that the oVyect of the curious shape of the 

 shoes was to prevent the tracks of the Kurdaitcha from being 

 recognised. This may have been the case to a certain extent, 

 but at the same time it must be remembered that in certain 

 respects the blacks have a very powerful imagination, and their 

 idea of not being able to track a Kurdaitcha is very possibly an 

 example of this. There is practically little doubt Ijut that if a 

 blackfellow really tried to track a Kiirdaitcha he would do so well 

 enough — a stick or a stone turned out of the way or the nature 

 of the impress of the rounded sole in sand would be quite 

 sufficient clue to an expert tracker, such as these natives 

 are, to show him the direction in which the Kiirdaitcha had 

 passed. Most probably it is, one mighc call it, an article of 

 faith that a Kiirdaitcha cannot be tracked. There is something 

 mysterious about him — he wears the sacred stone and hair girdle 

 which are supposed to give him special powers ; the carrying of a 

 sacred stone when lighting is even supposed to make a man 

 invisible to his enemies, and he commits the deed under the cover 

 of darkness. 



It would probably be more connect to say, not that the wearing 

 of the shoes makes it impossible to track the Kiirdaitchaj but 

 that the blacks make themselves beiie\e that it does so. 



