Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/173

168 in corroberie dances, or joining in the lewd songs common at all great gatherings, deeming such diversions frivolous, and beneath the dignity of their respective offices.

The Bangals are all under the conviction that they possess the power of causing sickness, even unto death, to fall upon whomsoever they please, and the laymen of the tribes are quite certain that such is actually the case; this is, therefore, the principal cause of the awe these imposters inspire their more ignorant fellows with. They, however, never put this pretended power in practice on members of their own tribes, at least they pretend never to do so; upon the Bukeens, on the other hand, they are continually trying the potency of their magic powers.

The mode by which they carry out this fell art of theirs is extremely novel, although it has but very little of the supernatural about it, as the following will plainly show.

Should a Bangal in the course of his wanderings drop across an old encampment of Bukeens he searches about carefully for some debris (such as bones) of the food they have eaten, but should his search for bones, or some other kindred debris, be unsuccessful, as frequently happens (from the fact of its being a habit common to all the aboriginal tribes to consume by fire the bones of the game upon which they have fed before they abandon a camp) he anxiously scans the ground all round the abandoned camp for feculent excrement, and should any of the Bukeens, from laziness or other cause, have omitted to use his paddle or to have used it carelessly, the vigilant Bangal pounces