Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/705

XI being explained by the bearer. I have even heard it said that persons, other than the one to whom a stick is sent, can read the marks with as much ease as educated people can read the words inscribed on one of our letters.

The subject is important in so far that a right understanding of the method by, and the manner in, which the markings on the sticks are made to convey information, is well calculated to afford some measure of the mental status of the persons using them.

In order to test the questions thus raised, whether these message-sticks do or do not convey information to those receiving them, apart from any explanatory message given by the bearer, I made such personal investigations as were possible, and addressed myself to correspondents in various parts of Australia, to a number of whom my best thanks are due for the trouble they took to inform me.

Following the same plan as in the other chapters, I commence with the Dieri tribe. The particulars relate to their customs, while they were in their primitive condition, nearly forty years ago. They did not use the message-stick, but sent only messages by word of mouth. It was not necessary, as with some tribes, that certain messages, for instance, those relating to the initiation ceremonies, should be carried by a man of the same totem as the sender. Messages are sent to gather people together for dancing corrobborees, from distances of over one hundred miles, and a messenger for such a purpose is painted with red ochre, and wears a head-dress of feathers.

In calling people together for the Wilyaru or Mindari ceremonies, the messengers are painted with diagonal stripes of yellow ochre, and have their beards tied to a point. They carry a token made of emu feathers, tied tightly with string and shaped like a Prince of Wales feather. The sending of a handful of red ochre tied up in a small bundle signifies the great Mindari or peace ceremony. In giving notice of the ceremony of circumcision, the messenger takes a handful of charcoal, and places a piece of it in the mouth of each person, without saying a word. This is fully understood to mean the "making of young men."