Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/209

Rh the weapons; then they tie an opposum skin on each of them. The men thus operated upon pretend to be mad, rub themselves all over with chalk, and run about as if demented. They are supposed to be able to pernmin with frightful force. One of them told me he once killed a magpie only by the force of sorcery. They pretend to extract disease, but at the same time to be equally able to impart it. They are supposed to be under the influence of the great master sorcerer—the demon Melapi; so evidently Pelican classed me with native doctors, and thought I was a dangerous person.

There can be no doubt but that the natives believe in the reality of the power of sorcery. One old sorcerer told me that he had put it to the test of experiment, and that he was sure of it. He said that he put a certain ngadhungi or charm intended for a particular individual to the fire, and then watched the result. The person whom he intended to affect immediately sickened and became ill; he took the charm away, and the subject of the experiment got well. This he repeated two or three times with unvarying results. But they say that sorcery has no effect upon white people. I believe that the experiments were tried upon me, but without success; the charm would not work.

One day I heard a great cry at the wurleys. I went up and found the women wailing, with their faces blackened and hair shorn off. An old man sat up in the midst with a despairing look on his face. I inquired the reason for all this, and learned that the old man had dreamed that some one at Tipping had put a ngadhungi to the fire to work his death, and he believed it must be the case. Some of the young men assured me that he would die unless some one went to Tipping to stop the sorcery; so I sent off a party in the boat in compliance with their wishes. Next day they returned and said that they could not find any sorcery, and so it was concluded that there must be a mistake somehow, and the old man got well.

One of the principal effects of the practice of sorcery amongst the natives is to develop the desire for revenge. Believing that