nS IIOKN !;.\FKI)1TI()N NAKKATIVK. 



Ill the CliaiiiUcr Kaiiyu is ;;, curious slialluw cave wliicli \v,-i,s investigated hy 

 J)r. Siiiliii;; and is deseriljetl liy him in tlie .Viitiii'opoluyieal seetion. It lias a 

 jiiojeetiii^ leilm' (if rock, and has evitU'utly, tV)i' uia,ny years past, been associated 

 witli some cei'cmony of the blaci<s. The froid. of the K'dge, wliich is al)OUt ti^n 

 feet- hiyii, is ornamented with alternate \'ertica.I lines of red and yellow ochre, 

 amciiigst which /iri; dark hands of wdiat is evidently hlood which has th.iwed o\-er the 

 edge and dried up. 



The blacks assured us that at this sjiot a sjiecial rite of blooddctting was 

 enacted, in connection with a, cei'cuiony, the object (,)f which was to increase the 

 numbci' of walla,by. TIk; native name for the spot is " Antiurra," and it is very 

 pidba.ble that here, for many years jjast, the blood letting cerc.^mony has be(!U 

 pei-i(_)dically enacte(L 



Ck'renumies of this kind are not unconnnon ainongst the natives of Central 

 .\ustralia,, as will be seen by reference to Mr. (Jillcm's article in the. Authr(jpological 

 section, where he describes two, one of which is coiuiected with tiie increase of the 

 " witchetty " antl tht.' other with the supply of water. These cei-emonies, which 

 may b(^ descrilied as " sacied " coriobboi'ees, are intimately associated with certain 

 subdi\'isions of the tiil)e and very clearly indicate the existence of totems — that 

 is, of tlu^ intimate connection of a, grouji of individuals with some natural object — 

 though this totemistic idea has become i-onsiderably modified amongst the Arunta 

 trilje whtm compared, for examjile, with those of the Urrapunna tribe to the south 

 of Charlotte Waters and others (as described by Messrs. Howitt and Fison) in 

 which esery in<h\idual belongs to some particular t(.item, ami in wdiich, further, 

 only inilividuals belonging to jiarticular totems may iid.ermarry. 



In tribes in which the totem sulidixisions regulate marriage it is most 

 fre<juently the case that, the individual is supposed not to kill or eat the natural 

 ol)Ject bearing the name of his totem ; but in the Arunta, so far as at jii'csent 

 known, no such relation between the intlividual a,nd his totem is recognised, or if 

 recognised at all then only during perha,ps some special period. 



A large number of bla.cks were camped out in the sandy Ijcd of tlu; Finke, 

 amongst the big red gum trees (/?. rosirafa), which here, as elsewhere, grew right 

 in th(; b('d of the creek itself. Some of them were sha.ping spears, othc^rs were 

 grinding Munyeru, Init the great majority were lying aljout doing nothing, and 

 jierfectly hapjiy because they ha-d enough to eat — a bullock having been just 

 kilknl, of wdiich they haxl, as usual, secured the jiarts not wanted by the white 

 men. 



