NOTES ON THE ARRANDA TRIBE. 147 



Birth and After-life. 

 I have i;i former articles briefly referred to the ignorance 

 of the natives of the Northern Territory in regard to the 

 mechanism of procreation, giving examples from the Wom- 

 baia, 1 Chingalee, 2 Chauan, 3 Warramonga, 4 and Yungmunni 5 

 tribes. According to the Arranda belief, a woman may be 

 camping with her husband close to a certain rock, soakage, 

 etc., and a spirit child will come out of the ground, or from 

 the rock, etc., and will throw a tiny tjurunga at her where 

 she is iyiug asleep. This magical implement enters the 

 woman's body and becomes a child. 6 Another version of 

 this belief is that a woman, whilst out walking in the bush, 

 may pass near to a certain tree where a little spirit child 

 is nestling among the leaves, and it throws a small invis- 

 ible tjurunga with the same result. Clumps of mistletoe 

 growing on the branches of gum trees are believed by the 

 blacks to be favourite dwelling places of spirit children in 

 quest of a human mother. It is also believed that spirit 

 children are borne along in wiiirlwinds, and if they pass 

 close enough to a woman will cast a small tjurunga at her 

 in the way described. These mythic infants are very 

 diminutive and may be in the form of any sort of creature, 

 or even in visible altogether. 



In the Arranda tribe a tjurunga is allotted to every child, 

 whether male or female, shortly after its birth. If the old 

 men know of a spare tjurunga belonging to the place where 

 the spirit child entered the woman's body, it is conferred 

 upon the new arrival; if not, a new instrument is made 

 and in either case is placed in the knanakala, an unfre- 



1 Queensland Geographical Journal, xx., p. 73. 8 lb., xxn., pp. 75, 76. 



3 This Journal, xl., p. 110. 



* American Antiquarian, xxviii., p. 144. 



5 Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris, vn., Serie v., p. 171. 



6 Compare with quotation from Rev. Geo. Taplin, given at p. 112 of 

 Vol. xl., this Journal. 



