7G 
IlOKN liXPEDITIOX—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
forked stick or any equivalent central feature. The performers in this case were 
all, I believe, of the Luritcha tribe. 
Ceremonial Sticks and Stones. ‘■'Churifia'' (Plate VII.) 
Under this head I deal with a class of objects of some symbolic import which 
are common to a large group of natives in the interior. Concerning them a good 
deal of secrecy and mystery exists amongst the blacks, and very little has been 
said, or seems to be known, of their true significance. Collectively, the term 
“Churifia” is applied to them in the Arunta (Gillen). 
I had been for some time familiar with the objects in question, from the fact 
that during recent years the South Australian Museum has I’eceived a good many 
examples from various parts of Central Australia. I knew also, before setting out 
on the Horn Expedition, that special value was attached to them, that they were 
made objects of mystery and concealment, and that they had some kind of 
connection with important rites and ceremonies. These facts made me very 
anxious to gain further information concerning them, but I regret to say that, in 
spite of much inquiry and of an unusually favourable circumstance, in which a 
considerable number of them were found in their place of concealment, I am not 
in a position to throw very much further light upon their meaning. Still I 
believe, that in the very little I have to say, I am on the right track. 
Mr. Gillen, who has had a large number of them in his possession, informs me 
that he has devoted special attention to the matter, and that he has collected 
information which is to form the subject of a paper to be published elsewhere, 
and, I may add, that his information has been acquired since he wrote his paper 
which accoanpanies this report. I am, however, unaware of the conclusions to 
which he has come, and I can only offer independently my own views, with a full 
consciousness of their incompleteness and possibly speculative character. 
The objects in question are, as indicated by the head-line, of two kinds— 
sticks and stones. The latter are certainly the rarer, and appear to stand in 
greater value and importance, though I believe their associations are of the same 
nature. 
The typical form of the wooden articles is that of a slab of hard wood, which 
is either flat on both sides, plano-convex or concavo-convex. The ends taper to 
more or less obtuse points or are rounded. Many of them are in fact exaggerated 
forms of the well-known “bull-roarer” (“Irula”), which itself must be regarded as 
belonging to the same category of articles (Plate VII., Fig. 9). Indeed, every 
