Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/407

 Rh Then Gillemurrango came along and made corrobboree, and hid his spear as before. He told them they must sit in a line, so they hid the shield behind them, and they watched how as he danced and sang he kept pulling the spear out of the sand. Then they passed the shield along until at last when the spear was out of the ground, the man at the end of the row held the shield. As soon as Gillemurrango took the spear up to throw, then the womba quickly put up the shield, and when the spear came along, instead of going all through the men, it hit the shield and broke into little pieces. That's all. [Mrs. Peggs inquired the fate of Gillemurrango—he had to hide away in the bush.]

Willie Jones said that the natives have a belief that after they are dead their next existence is to be either a devil, a bird, or "come up white pfeller."

1. Emu-feather decorations used by the men, worn either in hair, on upper arm, or just under knee.

2. Charms against sickness, the hair strings made entirely of hair from the beard. The latter given by King Ross. See page 346.

3-4. Pearl-shell letters of introduction (the broken one used by a man coming from Beagle Bay, passing through Lagrange Bay to Roebuck Bay). It was worn round the neck by a string with the piece of shell placed just over the shoulder. See page 339.

5. Woomerra (only a broken specimen). For aiding the throwing of spears a long distance. Not much used in Roebuck Bay district.

6. Back of narrow shield of hard wood used by the Roebuck Bay natives. The front of shield never decorated. Tribal marks on back. At blood ceremonies the blood from the wound is allowed to drip into the haft of the shield, and each native present then dips his fingers in the blood and smears it on his body. See page 356.