Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/414

388 Kurnai had a tame Thurung (brown snake) which he fed on frogs. People were very much afraid of him, because they believed he sent it out at night to hurt others.

I remember that many years back there was an old woman of the Biduelli tribe who was much feared because she had a tame native cat which she carried about with her, and which was believed to injure people during sleep at her wish.

One of the most curious practices of the lesser magic which has come under my notice was that of the Bunjil-yenjin of the Kurnai, which I have not met with elsewhere. I have spoken of them at length in another part of this work, and need not again refer to the particulars.

As part of the magical practices of the native tribes, the use of charms is not to be overlooked. As an instance which came under my notice I give a charm to drive away pains, which Tulaba learned from his deceased father in a dream. One evening when I was at the Jeraeil ceremonies I heard a most extraordinary song proceeding from his camp. I found that he was driving away pains which were troubling his old wife, and he told me that he was singing a most powerful song which his father Bruthen-munji had taught him while he slept. The words are as follows, an extraordinary emphasis being laid on the last word:—

The medicine-men were everywhere credited with the power of flying through the air—perhaps "being conveyed" would be a better term—either to distant places, or to visit the "sky-land," where dwelt, according to a widespread belief, their allies the ghosts and supernatural beings, such as Daramulun, from whom, in some tribes, their magical powers were supposed to be derived. If not conveying themselves by art of magic, they were supposed to climb up by means of a cord, which they threw up, or which was let down to them from above; or, as the Theddora medicine-men were said to do, they blew up a thread like a spider's web out of their mouths and climbed up thereby. The Kurnai Birraark was conveyed by friendly Mrarts or ghosts on the