516 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



lives with his wife's tribe for three moons (months), and then 

 takes her to his own tribe. The marriaj^e ceremony is as follows : 

 — The parents of the bride have a ball made of copi (o-ypsum), 

 and the parents of the bridegroom have one made of red ochre. 

 The red ochre ball is given to the bride and the gypsum ball to 

 the bridegroom. If the bride cannot agree with her husband, she 

 buries her ball in the sand, and vice versa ; and if she wants to 

 leave her husband altogether, she smashes the ball in pieces and 

 throws the pieces into the air. The husband then gathers her 

 belongings and burns them, and vice versa. A man is allowed to 

 have two wives, and when away from the tribe for any time and 

 not taking his wife, often hands her over to an unmarried man 

 (pera), who can enjoy the privileges of the absent husband. If 

 the hvisband dies, the woman can marry again. 



The left foot of a woman is considered imclean. 



Disease and Death. — All diseases are supposed to be caused by 

 the bone of a dead blackfellow being pointed at the sick person. 

 If a man or woman dies the cause of death is always put down to 

 the pointing of the bone. If a blackfellow of the Dipracoolie 

 tribe wished to be revenged on a blackfelloAv of the Andra^dlla 

 tribe he Avould point a bone (taken from the arm of a dead black- 

 fellow) in the direction of Andrawilla and then take the bone to 

 a waterhole and stick it in the mud. The blackfellow who is sup- 

 posed to have had the bone "pointed" at him dies from fright. 

 A body of twelve armed men (pinya-pinyas) of the Andrawilla 

 tribe are told off to kill the blackfellow who pointed the bone. He 

 is invited out to a hunt by his own tribe : the pinya-pinyas are 

 hidden ; his friends fall off one by one, and then the pinya-pinyas 

 jump out of their hiding-places, fall upon him, kill, and bury him. 



The following incident occiirred at Andrawilla two years ago: — 

 A blackfellow died at Knntapunchinna, and it was supposed by his 

 friends that a bone had been pointed at him. A blackfellow who 

 came from Coongye, on the River Cooper, was on his way to 

 Sandringham, in Queensland, for the purpose of obtaining pituri 

 (native tobacco). He was invited to stop for the night by the 

 Andrawilla tribe, as he was suspected of having pointed the bone 

 that caused the death of the blackfellow at Kuntapunchinna. 

 During the night a body of pinya-pinyas came from that tribe and 

 killed and buried him. 



Syjihilitic diseases are treated by the sufferer being taken to the 

 edge of a waterhole and buried in the mud up to the na^■el for 

 fourteen days, during which time he is fed, and a shelter is erected 

 to protect him from the weather. At the expiration of that time 

 he is dug out, and it is said generally completely cured. 



Burial. — When a native is dying all the members of the tribe 

 sit in a circle and sing a death dirge, the body of the dying person 

 being kept warm by being covered, all except the head, with hot 

 sand taken from underneath a fire. Ujjon death occurring a grave 



