Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/174

169 upon the unhidden fæces as a miser would upon a treasure. After he has secured his savoury find, he lubricates a piece of opossum skin with the kidney fat of some of his victims, and carefully wraps it round his treasure, after which yards of twine are wound round and round, each wind being what sailors term a half hitch, thus independent of the preceding one or the one which follows; if bones are found they are treated in a similar manner.

At night, when all in the camp are quiet, the Bangal carefully takes his prize from the Mocre Mocre (bag) beginning a low monotonous chant, whilst he thrusts one end of the prepared roll into the fire (the fire is small by design); during the process of gradual combustion the chant is continued, sometimes low as a weak child's wail heard a considerable distance off, and again swelling up into the sonorous tones of a strong man's agony, yet never losing its weird monotony. The chant consists of sound principally, with an occasional interjected request (always in the same tone) to Konikatnie. Should it be his wish to kill the Bukeen outright, in one night, he keeps up the chant, and pushes the burning roll forward into the glowing embers as it consumes, and when the last vestige of it has dispersed in unsavoury smoke, the life of the Bangal's victim has ceased.

Should the Bangal, however, wish to prolong the dying agonies of his foe, he merely burns a small portion of the roll nightly, chanting his incantation during the process, and should months pass before the roll is totally consumed, so long will the torture of his victim continue.

All aboriginal deaths (unless those caused by violence