Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/733

XI or of the clan, relating, for instance, to the Jeraeil ceremonies, the messenger would also carry with him as his credentials a bull-roarer, which he would deliver with his message in secret.

It was not infrequently the case that a Headman, to authenticate his messenger, gave him some weapon, for instance a club, known to the recipient of the message.

When the last great tribal ceremonial combat took place, the parties to it had been summoned to meet at a certain place, by a messenger who carried a jag-spear, on which was hung a man's kilt (Bridda-bridda) as the emblem of his mission.

A friendly messenger sent from one clan to another was also called Bidda. In 1850, that is, about eight years after the first settlement of Gippsland, such a messenger came from the Dairgo clan to those nearer the sea, and in delivering his message he spoke for a considerable time as to the relations between his people and the Ovens River tribe.

I am not aware what emblem he carried, but as in the case of the message calling together the tribes which I have mentioned, it might probably be a man's Bridda-bridda hung from the point of a spear.

No one would harm such messengers on such an occasion. In the Chepara tribe the messenger, if sent by the principal Headman, carried with him a message stick called Kabugabul-bajeru, the markings on which are always the same, having been handed down from past times, and are known to the Headmen. It signifies that the recipient must start at once for the appointed place. The stick tells this of itself, but the actual message is by word of mouth.

Women and children are not permitted to see this stick.

The messenger delivers the message and the message-stick to the Headman of the clan to which he is sent, and which is nearest to his own. This Headman then sends it on by his own messenger to the next, and so on till it has been taken to all the clans. The message-stick is returned to the original sender. In cases of unusual importance, the original messenger has been known to carry the message-stick and message to all the clans of the tribe.