Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/385

VII received by the elders whether the Kunki follows it up. The Kunki say that, like a Kutchi, they can fly up to the sky by means of a hair cord, and see a beautiful country full of trees and birds. It is said that they drink the water of the sky-land, from which they obtain the power to take the life of those they doom.

One of the most common spells used by the Dieri is "pointing with the bone" (human fibula), and this practice is called Mukuelli-Dukana, from Muku, "a bone," and Dukana "to strike." Therefore, as soon as a person becomes ill, there is a consultation of his friends to find out who has "given him the bone." If he does not get better, his wife, if he has one, if not, then the wife of his nearest relative, accompanied by her Pirrauru, is sent to the person suspected. To him she gives a small present, saying that her husband, or so-and-so, has fallen ill, and is not expected to get better. The medicine-man knows by this that he is suspected; and, fearing revenge, probably says that she can return, as he will withdraw all power from the bone, by steeping it in water. If the man dies, and especially if he happens to be a man of importance, the suspected man is certain to be killed by the Pinya. When the tribe wished to kill some one at a distance, the principal men have joined in pointing their respective bones, wrapped in emu feathers and fat, in the direction of the intended victim, and at the same time naming him and the death they desired him to die. All those present at such a ceremony, which lasts about an hour, are bound to secrecy. Should they hear after a time that the intended victim continues to remain alive and well, they explain it by saying that some one in his tribe stopped the power of the bone.

It is almost always the case for two persons to act together in "giving the bone." One of them points with it, and also ties the end of the hair cord, which is fastened to it, tightly round his upper arm in order that the blood may be driven through it into the bone. The other person holds the end of another cord fastened to the bone, and goes through the same motions as he who is holding the bone.