ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA. 249 



A start is then made upon the return journey, and they 

 all travel as speedily as possible, hunting as they go. They 

 return along the same route as they travelled out by, and 

 use the same camping places. They again dance and sing 

 around the marked trees for the purpose of exorcising all 

 the magic and potency which had been injected into them 

 when they were first marked. This restores them to their 

 position as mere ordinary trees of the forest, and makes 

 them of no service to the enemy. It also destroys the 

 spell of any adverse sorcerer. 



On reaching within about a mile of the place where the 

 women and others were directed to make a new camp, 

 mentioned in an earlier page, the returning warriors con- 

 tinue muttering mu-u-uh I until they reach the vicinity of 

 the camping ground. Every man has bunches of leafy 

 twigs or green grass fastened in his brow-band, the same 

 as the spies already described, and the actual slayers are 

 in the lead. When the old men hear this sound they go" 

 and meet the avengers and conduct them to the bambilli. 

 On the following morning the result of the expedition is 

 related very fully, and the portions of the victim's body 

 which they have brought with them are produced. 



Some green bushes are laid on a smouldering fire to make 

 a smoke, and the dead man's skin, with the flesh attached, 

 is placed on top, and smoke-dried. Red ochre powder is 

 sprinkled over, or rubbed upon the skin to assist in drying 

 and preserving it. Each head-man takes a piece of the 

 preserved flesh and puts it into his guraga bag, which he 

 carries slung over his shoulder. These bags are never 

 brought into the camp where the women and children 

 reside, but are hung up on some convenient tree or sapling 

 at the bambilli on the confines of the camp, where none 

 but the initiated are allowed to consort. 



At certain times the old head-men and warriors warm 

 the pieces of fleshy skin to make the fatty matter soft, 



