HORN EXPEDITION-ANTHROPOLOGY. 
69 
reason do they bleed themselves ? If, however, the account I have given as to 
the purpose for which the stone is used be correct, and there is no doubt as to the 
fact that blood is spilt upon it for some pui'pose or other, it seems proper to 
speak of the stone as an altar. I have not heard of any other similar oljject in 
Australia. 
Venesection. 
Attention having been turned to the subject of venesection I was much 
surprised to find how common is the practice amongst the blacks of both the 
Arunta and Luritcha tribes, and the information I gathered on the subject may 
perhaps be conveniently related here. 
Certainly a vei’y large number of the adult men show one or more scars of a 
phlebotomy, either at the lieu d'election at the bend of the elbow or over the 
superficial veins of the fore-arm, but here again it was exceedingly difficult to get 
satisfactory and sufficient information on the subject. As in the case of the 
Antiarra stone, allusions to the suljject of bleeding were almost invariably made in 
whispers, and the subject mentioned with some reluctance. No doubt the most 
frequent reason for the operation is the fact that human blood is the approved 
glutinous medium for causing adherence to the body of a vegetable down which is 
used either in its natural white state or mixed with red or yellow ochre, to decorate 
the body in their ceremonies and corrobborees, and as these are frequently held 
venesection must be frequent for this purpose alone. 
We had an opportunity of witnessing the operation at Alice Springs as part 
of the preliminaries of a corrobboree, which will be described in another section. 
The subject, who is a special individual, squatted on the ground and had his upper 
arm bound round with native string in the orthodox fashion; the operator, 
similarly a selected person, squatted in front of his patient and, with a very small 
piece of glass not more than half an inch long and a quarter wide, notched and 
sawed at the integuments of the bend of his elbow for nearly five minutes before 
the vein was opened. The operator would have been still longer over the business 
if he had not changed his piece of glass, which was very blunt, for another which 
had a keener edge. When at last the blood did flow freely it was caught in the 
hollow of the haft of a shield (the spear-thrower is often used for a similar purpose), 
the operator vainly endeavouring to promote the flow by stroking the arm in the 
wrong direction or against the venous current (see Plate XV., Fig. 18). The 
quantity of blood thus obtained, about six or eight ounces, was applied to the 
body with a roughly improvised brush, made by twisting a strand of native string 
round the end of a rough untrimmed stick. 
