258 R. H. MATHERS. 



successfully. A girdle made from the hair of a warrior, 

 alive or deceased, confers great powers upon the wearer. 



Food Regulations, Totems, etc. 

 Dyimber is a term applied to the laws regulating the 

 dividing of all food caught by the people. Food which is 

 strictly forbidden to a man or woman is called mugu. These 

 are the terms used in the Thurrawal and Thoorga tribes of 

 New South Wales. A few examples only will be given. 



The rules of dyimber will be first described : — -A boy 

 must not eat anything which he catches himself, neither 

 can his sister eat it, but his father can, and in certain cases, 

 his mother too. Two brothers must exchange anything 

 they catch, with some boy who is not their brother. Young 

 children of both sexes can eat anything which is given to 

 them by their parents or relatives, because the rules of 

 mugu do not apply to them. The forelegs of animals are 

 given to little boys to make their arms strong. 



A young woman may not eat anything which she catches 

 herself, or which is caught by a boy, but she can eat what 

 an initiated man catches. A young man cannot eat any- 

 thing which a woman kills with a stick or club, but he may 

 eat what she catches on a line, provided it be not mugu to 

 him. 



When a man kills a mammal, say an opossum, he splits 

 it lengthwise with a stone knife into two equal parts, the 

 cut extending down the middle of the back. He then keeps 

 for himself the half containing the right fore and hind legs, 

 and gives the left half to a friend. Birds and reptiles are 

 divided in the same way as an opossum. 



If a man catches a fish he lays it down on its left side, 

 and about midway between the nose and the tail he makes 

 a transverse incision from the back to the belly, penetrating 

 halfway through the body. Then he splits off the upper 



