280 



men may visit it, but after that it is avoided and never passed iu 

 the dark. As a rule the body is buried near the place where 

 death occurred if a high and dry spot is convenient. The tribe 

 always shifts camp after a death has taken place, and never bury 

 more than one corpse in the same place. 



This custom of burial prevails among the Wungarabunna, 

 Diyeri, and Kuyaimi tribes. 



\OTES ON VABIOUS SUB.JECTS. 



In the Wungarabunna dialect the chisel used for makincr 

 boomerangs and other tools is called Kandru. This is a stout^ 

 slightly-curved stick of hard wood about two feet and a half long' 

 to which a sharp stone about an inch wide is attached with cement! 

 It also serves at times for throwing at game, or instead of a 

 waddy, but is mainly used as a tool^ The name of the stone is 

 Thula, and the cement for fastening the stone is called Kundi. 

 This is made from the gum of the grass tree (Xanthorrhea), which 

 does not grow nearer to Warria than Cooper's Creek, whence it 

 IS obtained by the Wungarabunna in exchange for other articles. 

 The best of it is obtained from old trees near the base of the 

 trunk and frojn the root. It is extracted by heating these over 

 a slow fire, when the gum oozes out, and afterwards mixed 

 with sand. The Wungarabunna sometimes substitute the gum of 

 the Gidyea (Acacia homalophylla), and since the railway came to 

 Warr-ina, Htockliolm pitch for it ; but none is as good as tJie 

 Kundi. 



To cure pain in the stomach the blacks use a shrub called 

 " Pinpa." Green branchlets of it are placed on the embers of a 

 fire till they are well heated through, and so are applied to the 

 abdomen. I could not get a sample of it near Warrina, where it 

 is scarce, but it is said to be abundant near Beltana. 



Cyperus rotundus grows fairly abundantly along the sandy 

 borders of creek beds near Warrina, the bulbs of which are much 

 prized as food. The " Yalka," or " Yaua," as these are called by 

 the blacks, are collected when the leaves have died off', by diwcin"- 

 them up with the Wadna. They are about the size 'of the first 

 joint of the little finger, and when roasted in the ashes or on liot 

 stones they have a very pleasant nut-like taste. 



A PEW MEANINCiS OP >fA'riVE NA_A[ES. 



" Yauatunkinna " — a lake about 15 miles north of Lake Hope 

 — means "stinking of yaua." 



" Perrigundi "~a lake about .30* miles north of Lake Hope, 

 and filled by Cooper's Creek --means " beautiful bowl of water.'' 



' The distances may probably not be quite correct, but this is immaterial. 



