Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/270

 196 THE ENCOUNTER BAY TRIBE. gently upon the breast with this instrument he will become ill and die, or if he should shortly afterwards receive a wound that it will be mortal. The charming is generally performed upon a person asleep; therefore, when several tribes are encamped near each other there is always one keeping watch that they may not be charmed by any of the other tribe. Should a man have an enemy whom he wishes to enchant, and he can steal upon him while sleeping without being discovered, he thinks to throw him into a sounder sleep by striking in the air before his face as though in the act of sprinkling with a tuft of emu feathers which have been previously moistened in the liquor from a putrid corpse, and having performed the same operation upon any others who are sleeping near, to prevent their awaking, he taps gently with the plongge upon the breast of his victim. The mokani is a black stone, shaped something like the head of an axe, fixed between two sticks bound together, which serve for a handle. The sharp side of the stone is used to enchant males, the other side females. It is used in the same manner as the plongge. The ngadungge is another instrument to cause illness and death. Enemies watch each other, and search diligently for places where they have eaten ducks, parrots, cockatoos, a kind of fish called ponde, &c. If any one has eaten of either of these animals, and neglected to burn all the bones, his enemy picks them up. But if the other has been too careful to enable him to do this, he takes one of these animals and cooks it, and offers it in a friendly manner to his intended victim—having previously taken from it a piece of bone. This he keeps carefully, and fixes with grass-tree resin upon the end of a small needle-shaped piece of kangaroo bone about three inches long. This is the ngadungge, which he places near the fire, in order to produce illness and death. While in possession of this instrument, he fancies he has the other in his power. Should a man become sick, if he is satisfied that his illness is not owing to the plongge or mokani, he attributes it to the ngadungge, which he supposes an enemy of his has placed near the fire. If he has, or can obtain from one of his friends, a ngadungge giving him power over the person whom he sus