Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/789

XII are hunting, those who are successful share their catch with those who have been less so, but there is not any rule by which certain individuals receive certain parts.

Among the Narrinyeri, when an emu is killed, it is first plucked, then partly roasted, and the skin taken off. The oldest men of the clan, accompanied by the young men and boys, then carry it to a retired spot away from the camp, all women and children being warned not to come near them. One of the old men undertakes the dissection of the bird, and squats near it, with the rest standing round. He first cuts a slice off the front of one of the legs, and another piece off the back of the leg or thigh; the carcase is turned over, and similar pieces cut off the other leg. The piece off the front of the legs is called Ngemperumi; that off the back of the leg or thigh, Pundarauk. The bird is then opened and a morsel of fat taken from the inside and laid with the sacred or Narumbe portions already cut off on some grass. The general cutting up of the whole body is then commenced, and whenever the operator is about to break a bone, he calls the attention of the bystanders, who, when the bone snaps, leap and shout and run about, returning in a few minutes only to go through the same performance when another bone is broken.

When the carcase has been cut up into convenient pieces for distribution, it is carried by all to the camp, and may then be eaten by men, women, and children, but the men must first blacken their faces and sides with charcoal. The sacred pieces Ngemperumi and Pundarauk can only be eaten by the very old men, and on no account even touched by women or young men.

If the men did not leap and yell when a bone is broken, they think their bones would rot in them; and the same if any but the deputed person should break a bone. This ceremony was practised by all the clans of the Narrinyeri.

I may mention here that, when in the Narrinyeri country in 1859, I placed some wood of the native cherry on my fire. One of the Narrinyeri who was standing by took it