Page:Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales.djvu/38

Rh belongs to the women, and, although a bird of evil omen, creating terror at night by its cry, it is jealously protected by them. If a man kills one, they are as much enraged as if it was one of their own children, and will strike him with thin long poles. The mantis belongs to the men, and no one dare kill it."

The three investigators just named were unquestionably the first to report these distinctive totems of the sexes. Rev. L. E. Threlkeld took the lead in drawing attention to the custom in New South Wales tribes; Rev. C. W. Schürmann did the same for South Australia; and Mr. James Dawson was the first to report the bat, the owl, and other animals as sex-distinguishing totems among the aborigines of Victoria.

A custom which is quite common in New South Wales and Victoria is that of carrying the desiccated hands of a deceased relative or friend, or even of an enemy, as a charm against evil, as well as a giver of warning when any danger is near. Old men and women of the Thurrawal, Thoorga, and Dyirringañ tribes have given me the following particulars of the practice in their territory. The hand is severed from the arm at the wrist, and when thoroughly dry is fastened to a string made of opossum fur or other material, and is then suspended round the neck, hanging down upon the breast of the wearer. Sometimes another dried hand is suspended in the same way between the shoulders at the back. If an enemy is approaching from the rear, the hand which is hanging between the shoulders is supposed to gently scratch or pinch the wearer to give him warning. If there is any danger in front, the hand suspended on the chest does the scratching, and so enables the wearer to foil his enemies. These charms also give notice in the same way of the proximity of game when the native is out hunting.

Mr. A. McMillan reports that when he was travelling in Gippsland in 1840, more than sixty-five years ago, he overtook an old blackfellow, respecting whom he says: "The only ornaments he wore were three hands of men and women, beautifully dried and preserved."

In 1841, Mr. W. T. Mollison heard of "portions of the body, usually hands or fingers, being observed in the lubra's (women's) bags. In conversation they admitted the fact." These two instances are the earliest record of this custom among the Australian aborigines.

Another superstition which is firmly rooted among all Australian tribes is that of transmigration or reincarnation. Ever since the time when New South Wales was first settled by Governor Phillip, we have heard of the inveterate belief of the blacks that they would reappear in the form of other men after death. Buckley, the white man who spent so many years with the wild natives of Port Phillip, Victoria, is said to have owed his life to their assuming that he was one of themselves who had come to life again. A similar belief was discovered at Port Lincoln, South Australia, in 1846, by Mr. Schürmann, who says, "they certainly believe in the pre-existence of the souls of black men."

It is stated in the Rev. G. Taplin's work, that among the Nimbaldi tribe, about Mount Freeling in South Australia, a spirit called Muree, which may be either a male or a female, meets a black woman, and throws a small waddy, weetchu, under her thumb nail, or under the great toe nail, and so enters the woman's body. In due time she gives birth to a child.