12 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
fashion, a concave pad of emu feathers; this again being surmounted by a fan-like 
plume of emu or other feathers laid flat upon it. The whole appendage was firmly 
fixed by bone hairpins and a long strand of fur-string. This head-dress I did not 
observe amongst the Aruntas. 
Glen Helen, Tempe Downs and the Mission Station are meeting grounds for 
the members of both these tribes, and a certain amount of intermingling between 
them appears to have taken place. At each of these places there were at the 
time of our visits a number of both present who seemed to be living together 
in harmony, but in the absence of the head-dress referred to, we were of ourselves 
usually quite unable to distinguish between them.* By far the greater part of 
our time was spent in the country of the Arunta, by whom English is much better 
spoken than by the Luritchas; indeed, nearly all of these neither spoke nor 
understood English at all, and certainly in no instance was their English 
vocabulary extensive enough to be a satisfactory or even feasible means of 
communication. 
These circumstances and the fact that the “black boy” who accompanied us 
belonged to the Arunta tribe made us much more faniilar with these than with 
the Luritchas. Thus, it must be understood that most of the information gained 
and recorded here has reference to the former. In many respects, however, the 
same is undoubtedly applicable to the Luritcha tribe, though I shall be careful to 
indicate, where possible, those details which are derived from the latter source. 
Mr. Gillen’s paper also refers to the Arunta tribe, and particularly to that 
section of it known as the Arunta Ilpma. Thus it happens to my great regret 
that one of the chief deficiencies in this paper is the very meagre nature of the 
information derived from the Luritcha tribe, which, from its greater freedom from 
the influences of civilisation, offers a better field for the ethnologist than their 
neighbours the Aruntas. 
So little has been written of the Central Australian tribes that, though, 
perhaps, not coming strictly within the limits of the ethnology of the Horn 
Expedition, it may be desirable in this place to record what information I have 
gathered (chiefly from Mr. Gillen) concerning the distribution of neighbouring 
tribes to the north of the McDonnell Ranges. 
* Mr. Horn, whose experience of the natives of the west coast of the Port Lincoln Peninsula dates from 1862, 
thiat is before they had come in contact with the whites, informs me that this kind of head-dress was worn in those 
early days as far south as the Gawler Ranges. Professor Spencer also states that he is nearly sure he saw it worn 
by some members of a westerly section of the Arunta tribe, so that as a distinguishing feature it is perhaps unsafe 
to attach too much value to its presence. 
