Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/525

VIII they flew from mountain to mountain. He then told them to get two large bags filled with gum-tree leaves, and to start for the Milky Way. This they did, and confirmed all that Kohin had said. One returned, but the other refused to leave such good quarters, and sent his Tikovina by the other. Kohin, who had remained on the Herbert while the two were absent, and had cured some old women of sores and had made them young again, now went away, leaving

the two Tikovinas with the tribe, telling them that when he sent another, marked red in the centre, they would have all to go to Kuling, and live there.

The Tikovina is a flat thin piece of soft wood cut from the north Queensland fig-tree. It is about a foot long, by about three or four inches wide, brought gradually to a point at the bottom, while the top is cut in the rude representation of a man's face with mouth and eyes. It is painted all over the front red and black with human blood and clay. As a sort of war-charm it is worn round the neck of a warrior, and hangs down between the shoulders behind, showing that the wearer means fighting, and that he will not miss with his club, spear, and boomerang, while the weapons of his adversary will glance aside from him. It is kept hidden away from women and children, who seem afraid of it.

As my authority for these statements put it to me, Kohin seems to these blacks to be a glorified and deified blackfellow, and they speak of him to those in whom they have confidence as their father.

It seems quite clear that Nurrundere, Nurelli, Bunjil, Mungan-ngaua, Daramulun, and Baianie all represent the same being under different names. To this may be reasonably added Koin of the Lake Macquarie tribes, Maamba,