Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/770

744 he had with him, according to the custom of his tribe. On making friends with the Kurnai, one of them was persuaded to be similarly ornamented; he was gashed on each arm, and subsequently a number of others followed his example.

After rain has fallen—following one of the rain-making ceremonies of the Dieri—there are always some who undergo the operation called Chiu-bari^ which is the cutting of the skin of the chest and arms with a sharp piece of flint.

The wound, which is through the skin, is then tapped with a flat stick to increase the flow of blood, and red ochre is rubbed in, producing raised scars. The operation does not appear to be very painful, as the patient laughs and jokes all the time. The reason given for this practice is that they are pleased with the rain and that there is a connection between the rain and the scars.

Even little children crowd round the operator, patiently waiting for their turn, and after they have been operated upon, run away, expanding their little chests and arms, and singing for the rain to beat on them. However, on the following day, when their wounds are stiff and sore, they are not so well pleased.

Although it is generally said that the raised scars do not indicate the tribe and are merely ornamental, there are some instances which show that there are certain cases in which the contrary is the case. In the Yerkla tribe the cicatrices are made at the initiation ceremonies by the medicine-men, and a legend relates how these scars came to be made first. This legend is given in the chapter on the initiation ceremonies of the western type, Chapter X.

A somewhat different version of the legend says that long ago an immense bird, larger than the brown eagle-hawk, killed and devoured all the tribe, except two men and one woman, who to save themselves went out at night and killed the bird. Afterwards they were attacked by a hostile tribe, but could not be speared, because they would jump up and appear somewhere else. Finally they jumped so high that they never came down again, and the two men are dark