Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/370

344 sacred rites of the tribe, and all breaches of custom, were visited with some punishment. Such punishments, or such ordeals, were always coram publico, and the women were present. Not so the adjudication according to which the penalty was prescribed.

Among the Kurnai, when a man had been called upon to appear and submit to an ordeal by weapons, for some death which he had been supposed to have caused by magic, for instance by Bulk, Murriwun, or Barn, he was attended by his kindred and by that branch of the tribe to which he belonged. He was called Wait-jurk, and the aggrieved person, that is, one of the near kindred, was called Nungi-nungit, which also applied to all his kindred who took part in the ordeal. They also were respectively supported by their section of the tribe.

In the proceedings, the aggrieved party and the accused were each at the ordeal accompanied by the Gweraeil-kurnai of their section of the tribe. The proceedings were conducted by the old men according to the ancient traditions, that is, as they would put it, "as their fathers did." An open and level piece of ground was chosen for the meeting. The two bodies of people assembled, facing each other, and some two