58 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



circle of friends, supported behind by one of them, and the doctor presses 

 the rug containing the doll to the patient's chest for some minutes, and then 

 departs. 



If the sick person is a chief or a chief's wife, or of superior rank, and the 

 doctor, on visiting him at sunset, finds it beyond his power to remove the disease 

 in the usual way, he goes up to the clouds after dark, and fetches down ten 

 spirits. These he places at a distance of fifty yards from the sick person. He 

 then has a conversation with his patient, and, after kneading him all over to 

 ascertain the seat of the disease, he informs the spirits, and tliey tell him what to 

 do. Having received his instructions, he warms his right hand at the fire and 

 rubs it over the affected spot. The spirits then depart, with a croaking noise 

 ' like the cry of the heron.' The doctor repeats the rubbing for three nights, and 

 then, telling the patient he will soon be well, he departs for his home, with his 

 followers. If, at the first meeting thereafter, his patient is cured, the doctor 

 receives presents of food, rugs, and weapons ; but if he dies the doctor gets 

 nothing. 



Spirits were very plentiful before the arrival of the white man. A spring 

 of fine water near Mount Kolor, called Lurtpii, was their favourite resort, and 

 they were to be found there at all times by the doctor, who alone had the power 

 to make them appear. He summoned them, however, only in summer time, 

 while the tribes were having their meetings and amusements. The men are not 

 much afraid of these spirits in the daytime, but the women and children are 

 terrified at them, and nobody runs the risk of seeing them after sunset. 



Sometimes, when a korroborse has ended, the doctor of the tribe calls on 

 three or four female spirits to come down from the clouds and dance round the 

 fire ; and, when accosted, each gives its name as that of a deceased member of the 

 tribe. Any person may look at them, but no one except the doctor can speak to 

 them, and nobody dares to run away. 



When the white men came to Victoria, there was one doctor of great celebrity 

 in the Western District, Tuurap Warneen, chief of the Mount Kolor tribe. So 

 celebrated was he for his supernatural powers, and for the cure of diseases, tliat 

 people of various tribes came from great distances to consult him. He could 

 speak many dialects. At korroboriES and great meetings he was distinguished 

 from the common people by having his face painted red, with white streaks 

 under the eyes, and his brow-band adorned with a quill feather of the turkey 

 bustard, or with the crest of a white cockatoo. Tuurap Warneen was 



