Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/298

 220 THE PORT LINCOLN TRIBE. hair is well singed off they are taken from the fire again, and the inside is taken out, and is generally handed over to the women and children. The superstitious simplicity of the Aborigines is peculiarly displayed in hunting and distributing game. They have a number of distiches, handed down to them by their ancestors, and known only to the grown-up men, which are rapidly pronounced when they are going to pursue or spear an animal. The literal meaning of these charms, or imprecations, as the natives term them, is probably unknown to themselves, since they are unable to explain it; but the object and confidently believed effect of them is, to throw the animal off its guard, so that it may not observe its enemy, or to weaken it, that it may not be able to escape from its pursuers. Another object in pronouncing these formulas appears to be, to remove the game from common use, or to render imperative the observance of their traditional laws with regard to animal food. The general principle of these laws is this, that the male of any animal should be eaten by grown-up men, the female by women, and the young animal by children only. An exception, however, is made with respect to the common kangaroo-rat, which may be eaten promiscuously. The wallaby, especially that species called by the natives yurridni, and the two species of bandicoot, kurkulla and yartiri, must on no account be eaten by young men and young women, as they are believed to produce premature menses in the latter, and discolour the beards of the former, giving them a brown tinge instead of a shining black. That the last-mentioned laws are strictly adhered to, I have had frequent opportunities of observing; but, as regards the general principle, I am afraid it is often disregarded, to the professed great grief of the men, who thence will sometimes take occasion to reprehend the young generation for their unprincipled conduct, declaring, at the same time, that in their own youth they scrupulously abstained from forbidden meat. Guanas and lizards are proper food for girls, as accelerating maturity, and snakes for women, promoting fecundity. The life of a hunter is necessarily a roving one under any circumstances, but more particularly so in a country which yields