138 



NA TURE 



[June io, 1897 



the majority of individuals who occupy that particular area. The 

 whole country occupied by the Arunta — and the same is true of 

 other tribes of which the authors have information — is divided up 

 into a large number of parts, each comprising what the natives 

 call an Oknannikilla, which may be described as a local totem 

 centre. There are, for example, certain areas forming wild cat 

 oknannikillas, others emu, kangaroo, mulga, frog, and so on, 

 the exact position of which is known to the natives. 



If, on the other hand, we examine the Urabunna tribe, which 

 adjoins the Arunta on the south, we see clearly a fundamental 

 difference in regard to the totemic system. The Urabunna are 

 divided into two phratries, viz. Matthurrie and Kirarawa, and 

 each of these again into certain totems, the same totem not 

 occurring in both phratries. The organisation of the tribe is 

 such that a Matthurrie man must marry a Kirarawa woman, and 

 not only this, but there is the further restriction that a man of 

 one totem must marry a woman of another. Thus a Matthurrie 

 cricket man must marry a Kirarawa crow woman, and, as descent 

 is counted through the mother, and not, as in the Arunta, 

 through the father, the children are Kirarawa and crows. 



In the Arunta it is quite different, and so far as the totems are 

 concerned, at first sight most perplexing. The subphratry name 

 is simple, every child of a Bultharra man and a Purula woman is 

 a Panunga, and so forth, but there is no such orderly method in 

 the totem names. The following actual examples of three, 

 amongst many families investigated by the authors, are typical 

 of what is found through the tribe. 



In the first fam.ily the father is Hawk ; wife No. i, Bandicoot ; 

 daughter, Witchetty GrUb ; wife No. 2, Kangaroo ; no children ; 

 wife No. 3, Lizard ; two daughters, one Emu, the other Water. 

 In the second family the father is Witchetty Grub ; wife No. 

 I, Lizard ; no children; wife No. 2, Munyeru (grass seed); 

 two daughters, one Lizard, the other Witchetty Grub. 



In the third family the father is Eaglehawk ; wife No. i, 

 Hakea flower ; no children ; wife No. 2, Hakea flower ; three 

 sons, respectively Witchetty Grub, Emu, Eaglehawk ; two 

 daughters, each Witchetty Grub. 



Two things are clear, first, that the totems, as they now exist, 

 have nothing to do with regulating marriage ; and second, that 

 the totems of the children do not of necessity follow either that 

 of father or mother ; they may be identical with either or both 

 of them, or they may be entirely different. 



It was whilst watching the ceremonies during the Engwurra, 

 and questioning carefully the performers after each one was con- 

 cluded, that the authors were able to gather information explain- 

 ing this apparently perplexing system, and also to arrive at an 

 understanding of the significance of the Churinga. The 

 information derived is briefly as follows. 



Each ceremony was connected with some particular totem and, 

 further, with some special locality, and each one dealt with some 

 particular ancestral individual or individuals. The traditions of 

 the tribe refer back to a long past time called the Alcheringa 

 (which means dream-times), when their ancestors were 

 designated by the name of, usually, some animal or plant. Thus 

 we have a group of individuals living in the Alcheringa, of whom 

 it is difiicult to say whether they were men-kangaroos or 

 kangaroo-men, the identity of the human individual being sunk 

 in that of the object with which he is associated, whose name 

 he bears, and from whom he sprung. These kangaroo-men 

 walked about the country now inhabited by the tribe, following 

 a definite route and halting at certain places, the positions of 

 which are well known to the natives by means of the traditions 

 which have been handed down from generation to generation. 

 In a similar way groups of Emu, Frog, Mulga, Wild Cat, and 

 other individuals walked across the country. 



Each one of these Alcheringa ancestors carried with him or 

 her a number of sacred Churinga, and where they halted, there 

 an oknannikilla or local totem centre was formed. At each spot, 

 so says tradition, certain individuals went into the ground, and 

 each became a Churinga, which is associated with the spirit part 

 of the individual. Not only this, but at each such spot they 

 deposited a large number of the Churinga which they carried, 

 and with each one of which in the same way a spirit individual 

 was associated. 



Then the whole area now occupied by the tribe became, as it 

 were, dotted over with a large number of local totem centres, 

 and this idea of spirit individuals of definite totems, associated 

 with Churinga and resident in certain spots, lies at the root of 

 the present totemic system of the Arunta and other tribes of 

 Central Australia. 



Thus we have close to Alice Springs a large and important 

 Witchetty Grub totem centre, and the following will serve as a 

 typical example of how each man and woman gain a totem 

 name. There were deposited in the Alcheringa, close by Alice 

 Springs, a large number of Witchetty Churinga, each of course 

 associated with a spirit individual. The latter can move about, 

 and always carries with it its Churinga, and is supposed to 

 frequent some special tree or stone, which is called its Nanja 

 tree or stone. When a woman conceives, it is one of these 

 spirit individuals who has entered her body, and therefore, quite 

 irrespective of what the father or mother's totem may be, the 

 child when born must of necessity belong to the spot at which 

 it was conceived, or rather at which the mother believes that 

 it was. Recently, for example, an Emu woman from another 

 locality came on a visit to Alice Springs. There she conceived 

 a child, but returned to her own Emu locality before that child 

 was born. When born, that child was a Witchetty Grub— it 

 must be, the natives say, because it entered the mother's body 

 at Alice Springs, which is a Witchetty totem centre ; it is, in 

 fact, nothing more nor less than the reincarnation of an Alcher- 

 inga Witchetty Grub. Had it entered the mother within the 

 limits of her own Emu locality, it would as inevitably have 

 been born an Emu 



Further, when the spirit-child enters the mother, it drops its 

 Churinga. After it is born the mother tells the father exactly 

 where it was conceived — that is, the spot where she first became 

 aware that she had conceived a child— and the father and one 

 or two other men go there, and either search until they find 

 the Churinga, or if they do not find one, then they make one 

 out of the mulga or other hard wood tree which lies nearest 

 to the Nanja tree, carve on it the design of the child's totem, 

 and hand it over for safe keeping to the head man of that 

 locality, who places it in the sacred storehouse where all the 

 Churinga of that totem centre are preserved. This Churinga 

 becomes the Churinga Nanja of the child. 



The meaning and importance of the Churinga may be gathered 

 from the above sketch, from which many details, to be published 

 later, are of necessity omitted. 



It is during the Engwurra, and whilst the ceremonies con- 

 cerned with the totems are being performed, that* the old men 

 of the tribe show the Churinga to the younger men, telling them 

 to whom they have belonged and the traditions associated with 

 them, and thus ensure the passing on of this knowledge from 

 generation to generation ; in fact, in ceremonies such as these 

 we see the earliest beginnings of historical records. 



Whilst the Engwurra is largely concerned with the perform- 

 ance of the sacred ceremonies, an equally important part is 

 played by the fire ordeals from which the name is derived, and 

 to which reference must now be briefly made. A full descrip- 

 tion of these, together with illustrations from photographs taken 

 by the authors, will be published as soon as possible. 



During the last month of the time occupied by the perform- 

 ance of the Engwurra the young men, who are being made 

 Urliara, are taken out into the l3ush every day before sunrise, 

 under the charge of certain elder men. There they have to 

 remain all day hunting game, which must be brought in to 

 the elder men, who stay in camp performing ceremonies. The 

 young men are not supposed to eat much, and become poorer 

 and poorer as the weeks pass by. Usually, but not always, 

 they are brought back to the Engwurra ground by way of the 

 women's camp. Just before sunset the women— Bultharra and 

 Panunga in one spot, and Purula and Kumarra in another, 

 some little distance apart— make a fire of bushes, and, standing 

 behind this, move their hands as if inviting the young men, 

 who are now called Illpongwurra, to approach. This- they do, 

 holding shields and boughs of a particular shrub over their 

 heads. Then the lubras or women, carrying burning grass and 

 boughs, run towards them, and throw the burning material over 

 their heads. The men have to protect themselves with shields 

 as well as they can, and after going to each fire they turn tail, 

 followed by the women, who stop and run back again when 

 they reach the bed of the river, on the other side of which lies 

 the Engwurra ground, which they must not approach. Arrived 

 at the latter, the young men lie down in a long row, each man 

 having his head upon the Parra. Perfect silence is maintained, 

 and here they must remain until the old men give them per- 

 mission to arise. Each old man takes charge of four or five 

 young men, who become what is called apinurj-a to him and 

 he to them, and no young man may speak to, or in the presence 

 of, his apmiirra till all is over. 



NO. 1 44 I, VOL. 56] 



