Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/550

466 from the main encampment. Each of the nine females held in one hand a piece of burning bark, and in the other a bunch of twigs gathered from the Pallee. Each female tapped the patients on the head with the twigs. The female doctors then walked round the fire, well warming the leaves of the twigs in the flames, and the hot leaves were rubbed on the breasts of the patients, and on the place where the Marm-bu-la is lodged, and on the navel. And they quickened their pace, and heated the leaves more and more, and they rubbed the leaves violently on the brows, heads, and hands of the patients, repeating all the time strange songs and wild notes of sorrow audand [sic] defiance. When this was done, each female threw her bunch of twigs into the fire. They next took Kun-nun-der (charcoal-powder), and each female doctor made a black streak from the navel to the breast of each patient, and again a black streak from each corner of the mouth to the ear. When all this was done, the patients were taken back to their miam apparently much exhausted; but so great was the faith of the patients in this method of cure, that they soon recovered, and followed shortly after their usual pursuits. During the trial, and when the female doctors were very busy, Quandine, the stoutest of the three blacks, fainted, and he was supported and tended by one of the female doctors.

Krum-ku-dart Buneit—evil spirits—take possession of the bodies of even aged and wise men. Tuart, an old black, was lying comfortably asleep one night in the encampment on the south bank of the River Yarra, when, about midnight, an evil spirit entered into him, and he became mad. Mr. Thomas was awakened by loud shouts—"Kom-ar-gee Marm-in-arta U-ree!—"Get up quickly, father!"—"an evil spirit has entered Tuart." Blazing fires were made, lights flitted and sprang up in all directions, and the encampment was a scene of fearful confusion. Mr. Thomas approached the aged Tuart, and found him dancing like a maniac, foaming at the mouth, and exhibiting every symptom of dangerous madness. Mr. Thomas was about to seize him, but was held back by the blacks, who declared that Tuart was possessed of an evil spirit, and would injure him. After capering wildly for about three-quarters of an hour, the old man fell down exhausted, and was carefully and tenderly carried to his miam by his friends. Quietness fell on the camp—all, including Tuart, fell asleep, and no more was heard of the evil spirit.

When a black is ill, or when a black dies, they believe that the sickness or the death is due to eminent powers of witchcraft. In the case of death, they blame some one—and they seek revenge. They say that some men have strange gifts: that they can make any black sick if they think fit. A black will bear the most excruciating pain if he knows the cause—as, for instance, if he has been wounded. But if sickness overtakes him—such as occurs frequently from over-eating, from hunger, from drinking cold bad water when heated by exertion—he grows alarmed. He fancies that some wizard has designs upon him; and this fear so deadens his faculties, makes him so helpless, that the disease—slight as it may be—does not infrequently terminate fatally.

The blacks, as has been stated, like the whites, have doctors. But their priests, sorcerers, seers, or doctors (Māk-ega)—all of them are impostors. They pretend to the knowledge of all things above the earth and under it. They