Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/393

VII replied, "I am sure they are putting poison in my footsteps." This is another instance of the use of our word "poison" for "magic."

The practice of using human fat as a powerful magical ingredient is widely spread over Australia, and consequently the belief is universal that the medicine-men have the power of abstracting it magically from individuals, or also of actually taking it by violence accompanied by magic. This is usually spoken of by the whites as taking "the kidney fat," but it appears to be the caul-fat from the omentum.

It is said by the Wiimbaio that the medicine-men of hostile tribes sneak into the camp in the night, and with a net of a peculiar construction garrotte one of the tribe, drag him a hundred yards or so from the camp, cut up his abdomen obliquely, take out the kidney and caul-fat, and then stuff a handful of grass and sand into the wound. The strangling-net is then undone, and if the victim is not quite dead, he generally dies in twenty-four hours, although it is said that some have survived the operation for three days. The fat is greatly prized, and is divided among the adults, who anoint their bodies with it and carry some of it about, as they believe the prowess and virtues of the victim will pass to those who use the fat.

But they also say that the Mekigar of such tribes can knock a man down in the night with a club called Yuri-battra-piri, that is, ear-having-club, a club having two corners, i.e. ears. The man being thus knocked down, his assailant would remove his fat without leaving a sign of the operation. They had a great horror of those men of other tribes who, they believe, prowled about seeking to kill people. They called them Thinau-malkin, that is, "one who spreads a net for the feet," and Kurinya-matola, "one who seizes by the throat." These were their real enemies, and when they caught them they blotted them out by eating part of their bodies. Once when the Wiimbaio feared that their enemies