654 NOTES ON THE NATIVES OF WEST KIMBERLEY, N.W. AUSTRALIA, 



the birth of the first child. The gins have two of the front 

 teeth of the upper jaw knocked out. 



Though they seem to have no idea of God, they have arrived at 

 that state of advancement to believe in a devil, Nourie, who 

 lives in the deep limestone caves, and wanders round their camps 

 at night, sometimes catching an unfortunate native, whom he is 

 said to carry off to his home and eat. When they hear him 

 coming they crouch round the fire ; but, strange to say, there is 

 often one of the party who can drive him away, being spirit- 

 proof, and even sometimes kills Nourie. " Did you ever see 

 a dead Nourie %" I asked a blackfellow. " No, the darkness 

 carry him away," he poetically explained. He also told me one 

 day that the fruit of a creeper only found growing under the 

 rocks was NoiiHe's food. 



Is not this man who can kill or drive devils away the first 

 idea of a priest ? They can understand a man being killed, but 

 are certain, if one dies from natural causes, that somebody must 

 have caused his death, believing in witchcraft to the extent that 

 many of the old men imagine they can kill an offending enemy in 

 the following manner : — A flat stick, pointed at both ends, is care- 

 fully carved, and often marked with certain symbolical lines 

 (mysterious curses, no doubt) ; then, when the offender is asleep, 

 the operator crawls up and passes it over his face and round his 

 limbs ; and it is said that sometimes when a man hears that this 

 has been done to him he wa.stes away with fright. This has led to 

 a curious custom among the coast tribes, though I could not hear 

 that it is ever done inland. When a man dies his body is fixed 

 in the fork of a tree, with all his weapons beside him, and in the 

 ground under the body a number of small sticks are stuck, some 

 pointing callavjar, north ; some bana, south ; some diioan, east ; 

 and others yaban, west. Returning in a few days' time hLs 

 friends carefully examine these sticks ; if none of the matter 



