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IIOUN EXPEDITION-ANTIIEOPOLOGY. 
“When a native for some reason desired to kill a member of another camp or 
another tribe he consulted the medicine man of his camp, and arrangements were 
made for a Kurdaitcha luma. 
“The attacking man was called the Kurdaitcha, and he and the medicine 
man went together similarly attired. The face was smeai’ed with charcoal, and a 
broad band of white gypsum was drawn down the face over the nose, and another 
similar band passed across the chest from shoulder to shoulder. A bunch of 
feathers was worn on the front of the head, and a bunch of green leaves stuck into 
the hair behind. Around the waist was a girdle made of the hair cut from the 
head of some dead warrior, the possession of which not only added valour and 
accuracy of aim to its possessor but caused dismay in the heart of his enemy. The 
legs were bound round with ordinary hair girdles, and both medicine man and 
Kurdaitcha wore remarkable shoes. These had the form of a long pad, convex 
below and flat above, made of human hair with numberless emu feathers inter¬ 
twined, and with a certain amount of human blood to act as a cementing substance. 
Ovci' the ujiper surface was stretched a network of string made of human hair, 
with a hole in the centre through which the foot was put, and across which 
stretched a hair-string serving as an instep strap. Both ends of the shoes were 
rounded off, and were exactly similar to one another, which has given rise to 
the erroneous idea that their object was to prevent the wearer being tracked. 
“ Once out of the sight of their own camp the medicine man and the Kur¬ 
daitcha put on the shoes, for which there appear to be special names in different 
parts, but which the blacks until they have been in contact with the whites do not 
themselves speak of as Kurdaitcha shoes. Around Charlotte Waters they call them 
‘ Inturthurta.’ 
“Then, leading the way, the Kurdaitcha creeps stealthily along; when the 
hostile camp is reached, if it be daytime, he and the medicine man remain hidden 
if they can until dark, when the Kurdaitcha will creep on and make the attempt 
to spear his enemy dead. If successful, the medicine man comes up and inserts 
into the wound the head of a live lizard which he has been carrying in his girdle, 
and which is supposed to drink up the blood and so hide the traces of the spear 
wound. Then the two go back to their own camp. When the murder is 
discovered, then the medicine man of the attacked tribe at once appoints an 
avenger, who is always a special relation of the dead native, and a return 
Kurdaitcha luma is arranged. If the Kurdaitcha tracks be seen near a camp no 
attempt is made to follow them up, but a keen watch is kept. If any native 
actually catches sight of a Kurdaitcha, he announces the fact by saying that ‘ a 
