182 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
ticrka, is said to have a wonderful eflect iu cases of debility. The luhras, from 
whom it is carefully concealed, have no know]edij;e of the custom, the men stating 
that no woman must know that a man has partaken of the blood of a man. The 
men further believe that a drauiiht of woman’s blood would kill the strongest 
o o 
man. 
In some cases of severe illness, a patient (male) is anointed all over with blood 
obtained by puncturing the laliia minora. Men, however, have a very great 
objection to this form of treatment, and will always try to avoid it if strong 
enough, and it is only practised when the patient becomes very weak and the 
KailtcJunva has failed to ellect an improvement. The patient, who is to be thus 
treated, is seizetl and held by several women while she, whose blood is being used, 
rubs it in. When the whole body has been thus well rubbed a coating of grease 
is added, which is believed to assist the process of absorption. A woman may 
be similarly anointed by blood taken from the male urethra. 
Men may drink the blood of freshly killed animals, but no woman is 
permitted to do so during the menstrual period {al-lura). It is believed that 
the breaking of this rule would abnormally increase the usual discharge and 
probably cause the woman to bleed to death. Women who have reached the 
climacteric are allowed the same privilege as the men in this resjiect. 
Customs of War. 
When warriors are starting out to attack another tribe they decorate their 
faces and bodies with stripes of yellow ochre, and a bunch of emu feathers 
is fastened to the hair girdle at the waist. This girdle is called kirni-urkna and is 
made of hair taken from the head and beard of a dead warrior relative. This kind 
of girdle is never worn except in warlike expeditions when the tribe means fighting; 
it is supposed to impart great strength, courage, and accuracy of aim to the wearer, 
in fact all the warlike attributes of the dead man are supposed to be, by this means, 
added to the natural powers of the wearer, while it also produces such inaccuracy 
of aim in the enemy that it is considered almost impossible to kill a man so pro¬ 
tected. All these advantages are expressed by the one native iiikilya. When 
going into battle the young warriors, protected by the kirra-urkna, always take the 
lead, the old men follow in the rear and operations are directed by the Alartunja 
(chief) of the tribe or sub-division of the tribe. 
Warriors returning from an expedition, after killing one or more of the enemy, 
paint their bodies with charcoal and decorate the head with gi’een bushes; a bunch 
