122 R. H. MATHEWS. 
feathers matted together to form the soles, and are 
fastened on the foot with string in the usual way. It has 
been erroneously said that such shoes, which are worn only 
by old conjurors, do not leave any tracks on the ground 
which could be detected by others, but the real explanation 
of their immunity from pursuit is because no man would 
attempt to follow the tracks of an individual using shoes 
of this character, from a superstitious dread of the magical 
powers of the wearer. Such shoes are very seldom worn, 
but are occasionally used by the Shamans of the tribe 
when engaged upon some special work, such as the making 
of rain, driving away evil spirits, or such like. 
Mr. EK. M. Curr thus refers to such shoes in his valuable 
work :—‘“* It was discovered in 1882, or thereabouts, that the 
blacks to the westward of Lake Eyre, on the Musgrave 
Ranges, and it is believed in some other portions of Central 
Australia, wear a sort of shoe when they attack their 
enemies by stealth at night. Some of the tribes call these 
shoes ‘kooditcha,”* their name for an invisible spirit. I 
have seen a pair of them. Their soles were made of the 
feathers of the emu, stuck together with a little human 
blood, which the maker is said to take from his arm. 
They were about an inch and a half thick, soft, and of 
even breadth. The uppers were nets made of human hair. 
The object of these shoes is to prevent those who wear 
them from being tracked and pursued after a night attack. 
It is only on the softest ground that they leave any mark, 
and even then it is impossible to distinguish the heel from 
the toe. The blacks say they can track anything that 
walks, except a man shod with ‘ kooditcha.’” 
VI. BULLROARERS. 
In 1840, when the Lutheran Missionaries, Teichelmann 
and Schtirmann, already mentioned in this article, were 
+ The 7 is sounded as in “ mite.” 
* The Australian Race, (Melbourne, 1886), 1., 148. 
