Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/86

 porcupine.' The body of the supposed spell-thrower is removed to the camp, to be eaten according to the custom described in the previous chapter.

This ends the feud, as life has been taken for life; but if the murderer should escape, and should be known to the friends of the deceased, he gets notice to appear and undergo the ordeal of spear-throwing at the first great meeting of the tribes.

If he pay no attention to the summons, two 'strong, active men,' called Pææt pææts, accompanied by some friends, are ordered by the chief to visit the camp where he is supposed to be concealed, and to arrest him. They approach the camp about bedtime, and halt at a short distance from it. One of the Pææt pææts goes to one side of the camp, and howls in imitation of a wild dog. The other, at the opposite side, answers him by imitating the cry of the kuurku owl. These sounds bring the chief to the door of his wuurn to listen. One of the Pææt pææts then taps twice on a tree with his spear, or strikes two spears together, as a signal that a friend wishes to speak to him. He then demands the culprit; but, as the demand is generally met by a denial of his being there, they return to their friends, who have been waiting to hear the result. If they still believe him to be concealed in the camp, they surround it at peep of day, stamping, and making a hideous noise, to frighten the people in the camp. In the meantime the chief, anticipating the second visit, has very likely aided the culprit to escape while it is dark. When the Pææt pææts and their friends discover that the man is not in the camp, they freely express their anger and disappointment; but, without attempting to injure anyone, they start off at once on the track of the fugitive.

The deaths of adults caused by epidemics are not avenged, nor are the natural deaths of boys before they have beards, or of girls before entering womanhood, or of those who have lost their lives by accident, such as drowning, falling off trees, snake bite, &c.

When the body of an adult is found with the muscles of the back of the neck 'slack,' and marks of blows on the breast, it is concluded that death has been produced by strokes from a heavy club of quandong wood, called 'yuul marrang,' 'wild hand.' A club of this kind is kept among the associated tribes for the express purpose of killing criminals, and, as the quandong does not grow in the Western District, this club is borrowed by the chiefs around when needed, and especially when they visit tribes with the expectation of avenging death. When a man has been killed by this club, the body is brought home and examined