140 G. Home: 



3. It is said that they were used in the ceremonies for producing 



a better supply of food, 



4. To mark the graves. This is undoubtedly true, but the same 



might be said of any other conspicuous stone, or of oval 

 balls of kopi. 



5. It has also been asserted that they are stuck into the grooind 



with the base upwards, and that blood is dropped into 

 the cupped base. I can, however, find no absolute proof that 

 this is done. Etheridge, who has very thoroughly investi- 

 gated their use, suggests they had a phallic significance. 



Dr. Howitt, in his great treatise on the natives, never mentions 

 these stones. Sir Baldwin Spencer, in dealing with them, says, " The 

 evidence in all cases is very meagre, and inconclusive." The early 

 settlers say, to quote Dr. Pulleine,2 " The natives took no notice of 

 them, neither using them, nor avoiding them in any way, and had 

 no name for them." 



Quoting Dr. Pulleine again, he says, " Mr. John Conrick, of Nappa 

 merri. Cooper's Creek .... tells me that, although he has lived 

 there since the early seventies, he has never seen them used, or 

 noticed by natives, and that they are known there simply by the 

 name of Moora," 



From my own observations, and from those of Mr. Alston, who is 

 elder brother to the Wonkonguru people. East of Lake Eyre, we found 

 them recognised by the old aborigines, but not at all by the younger 

 men. 



The old men would be from seventy to ninety yeai-s old. Their 

 age is calculated by their status when McKinley first came to the 

 district, and by their relative, ages. Thus — " me boy, this one man " 

 — when told by a seventy years old man makes the second one 

 eighty. This old man when shown the stones, said " Kootchi, Kootchi, 

 Moora," meaning that they we-re uncanny and belonged to the Moora. 



A most interesting stone is the Karamoola Yudika, or circum- 

 cision stone. Mr. Alston has one of these which is slightly broken 

 at the lower end, but is not hollowed at the base. He also sent two 

 to Melbourne. One of them is in two pieces, the other whole. They 

 were all found on the sandhills near Kalamurinna. I showed this 

 one that Mr. Alston has to my old native friends " Koonkoo Nuta- 

 taculli," and " Tarkarawikari." They each at once averted their eyes 

 and with palms of hands raised and turned outwards, motioned me 

 away with it saying, "Kootchi, Kootchi" (uncanny, uncanny). They 

 stated " Moora use make'em man," but to Mr. Alston they have each 

 told the following story. He says: — 



" They are supposed to be the wonto or penis turned i.o stone, of 

 someone who died as the result of having been circumcised with a 

 firestick. When the Moora's showed how the operation should be 

 performed with a knife, they brought one each of these stones along. 

 The foreskin was stretched over the point of the stone, which was 

 held opposite to, and in prolongation of, the penis. The stone knife 

 then cut around the end of the stone. After the operation was all 



2. Pulleine, Trans. Roy. Soc, S. Aust. Vol. XL\I,, 1922, 



