Lower Murray Aborigines. 19 



nest been robbed by a crow, in each case the evil spirit in 

 question is blamed. They go so far as to pretend to show 

 the spirit's tracks, when there is nothing to show, unless 

 perhaps some slight depressions of gigantic size, attri- 

 butable to the action of water, or other natural agent ; if 

 laughed at for their absurdity, they become very cross, and 

 ask how a white man can understand black fellow's affairs 

 better than a black fellow. 



They speak of a Water Spirit as well, whose presence is 

 death to the beholder, unless he be one of the initiated, two 

 or three of whom are to be found in each tribe. The initiated 

 are termed Bungals, signifying doctors ; occasionally these 

 learned men disappear for two or three days together, and 

 come back with bleared eyes and humid garments, and tell 

 extraordinary stories of the wonders they beheld in the 

 water spirit's domicile in the bottom of the river, and the 

 simple natives give perfect credence to every thing told 

 them, no matter how gross or glaring the falsehoods may be. 



The only thing in the shape of magic found amongst them 

 is the power they imagine themselves to possess, of making 

 any one member of a hostile tribe sick, and more sick until 

 he dies. Their method of proceeding is this : if they can 

 procure any of the remains of a piece of meat from which the 

 person they wish to kill has eaten (such as bones), they col- 

 lect them carefully together, and wrap them tightly round 

 with native twine, and then smear the whole over with fat. 

 After this is completed, if they wish to kill the person at 

 once, they kindle a fire, upon which they place the bones, 

 and whilst the bones are being consumed, they chant some 

 very monotonous incantation continuously, until the bones 

 are reduced to ashes, and then scatter the ashes to the four 

 winds and the person is dead. 



If they wish to prolong the sufferings of their foe, they 

 merely burn a small portion of the bones every night, chant- 

 ing the incantation during the process, and if it takes a 

 month or two to complete the destruction of the bones, so 

 long will the victim's torture last. They attribute all deaths 

 and sickness amongst them to this cause, and nothing will 

 persuade them to the contrary. If a white man asks them 

 to practise so on him, they will laugh at the seeming 

 absurdity of the idea, and say, " O too much fear white 

 fellow." Whether we are to infer that their magic would be 

 of no avail on a white man, or whether they are in too much 

 terror of the law to put it in practice, it is difficult to say. 



c 2 



