ON THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 107 
Gommera is the Biamban of all the men, and Daramulun is the Biamban of all.’’* 
The Headman sent messengers to call people together for ceremonial purposes, and to 
call upon offenders to come forward and submit to punishment. At such meetings 
the Headmen were present, and directed the proceedings. When men were believed 
to habitually practise the injuring of others by casting magical spells upon them the 
Gommera would, after consulting with the other old men, give orders for the offender 
to be killed, and an armed party of younger men carried out the sentence. The 
Gommeras were the repositories of the old customs and laws. When a number of 
the divisions of the tribe were collected together their Gommeras met, as occasion 
required, at some place apart from the camp and consulted upon such matters as 
required to be dealt with. I have been present at such meetings. I have observed 
that they were carefully guarded against the intrusion of women, or of the uninitiated. 
The younger men sat round at a little distance and listened attentively, but did not 
venture to speak. The old men spoke in turn, and the Headman spoke usually last, 
and his views were generally adopted. I was much struck by the profound and 
respectful attention with which a younger man has listened with bent head, and eyes 
cast down, to the directions given him at such a meeting. At such meetings 
offenders against custom are dealt with by the old men. 
The power of the old men in such tribes is riveted upon the young men by the 
impressive instructions as to implicit obedience due to their orders given at the 
initiation ceremonies, and by the apparently supernatural powers which they thereat 
exhibit to the novices. 
The accounts which Mr. Gason has given me as to the status and powers of the 
Headman of the Dieri tribe, before it came into contact with our civilisation, are most 
interesting and important,} and my own acquaintance with this tribe and the neigh- 
bouring Yantruwunta, while they were still purely in their primitive condition, enables 
me to corroborate, to some extent, Mr. Gason’s statements. These tribes inhabited 
country in the Barcoo delta, west of Lake Eyre, and they represent a great number 
of tribes which extend over a very wide area in Central Australia, all of which have 
the same social organisation. 
The Dieri are divided into two great classes, named Kararu and Materi, each 
having a number of totems (Murdu). The tribe is also divided into a number of local 
divisions, which I have termed hordes. Of these there are five principal ones. In 
each totem the oldest man was its Head or Pinaru.t In each horde there was alsoa 
Pinaru, who might also happen to be the head of a totem. But it did not necessarily 
follow that the head of a totem or the head of a division had much influence beyond 
* See “ Australian Ceremonies of Initiation,” p. 12, Journal Anthrop. Inst., May, 1884. 
+ I have communicated a memoir on the Dieri and kindred tribe to the Anthrop. Inst. 
{ From Pina=great. Thus being the analogue of the Kurnai word Gweraeil—=great. Pinaru is, therefore, to be 
translated as ‘‘ great one,” or Headman. 
