The Aborigines of New South WalesPotter, 1892 - 102 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
aboriginal Adult Adult Africa alveolar arch Andaman Islands animal Australian aborigines Australian black average believe blackfellows body boombat Bora Bora ceremonies boys brother bumarang burial buried camp carry Cephalic index chief child circle Clarence River clubs colour cooking Cooper's Creek crania custom dance dead death deceased diameter evil spirits father feet female Fiji fire fish foramen magnum girl grave ground hair hand head inches initiated Ippai Kamalarai kangaroo karabari killed kind Kumbo male man's marriage Melanesia mother mounds Nanga native night novice opossum painted Palato-maxillary piece prognathism Queensland race rites river sacred shape sheets of bark shield skin skulls songs South Wales spear stick stone sub-tribe subnasal point taurai thing tomahawk totem tree tribal tribal class tribe Turner weapons whole woman womara women wood young دو
Popular passages
Page 36 - ... and as often as a man lifted a spear to throw, she interposed herself ; her violence was becoming outrageous, when there came forward from the opposite side a woman also armed with a tomahawk, and seemed inclined to take summary means to quiet the first intruder ; she, however...
Page 80 - Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you : I am the LORD.
Page 3 - ... to the clearing in the forest, taking with them the Igonji, or novice. It is necessary that she should have never been to that place before, and that she fast during the whole of the ceremony, which lasts three days. All this time a fire is kept burning in the wood. From morning to night, and from night to morning, a Ngembi sits beside it and feeds it, singing, with a cracked voice, The fire will never die out...
Page 84 - I never saw a more ghastly object. He had on a high head-dress of black feathers. His eyelids were painted red, and a red stripe, from the nose upward, divided his forehead in two parts. Another red stripe passed round his head. The face was painted white, and on each side of the mouth were two round red spots.
Page 3 - ... never heard before. These, he was told, emanated from a spirit called Ukuk. He afterwards brought to me the instrument with which the fetich-man makes this noise. It is a kind of whistle made of hollowed mangrove wood, about two inches in length, and covered at one end with a scrap of bat's wing. For a period of five days after initiation the novice wears an apron of dry palm leaves, which I have frequently seen. " The initiation of the girls is performed by elderly females who call themselves...
Page 3 - The initiation of the girls is performed by elderly females, who call themselves Ngembi. They go into the forest, clear a space, sweep the ground carefully, come back to the town and build a sacred hut, which no male may enter. They return to the clearing in the forest, taking with them the Igonji, or novice. It is necessary that she should have never been to that place before, and that she fast during the whole of the ceremony, which lasts three days. All this time a fire is kept burning in the...
Page 2 - It into a book : a promise which I am compelled to break by the stern duties of my vocation. He told me that he was taken into a fetich-house, stripped, severely flogged, and plastered with goat-dung; this ceremony, like those of Masonry, being conducted to the sound of music. Afterwards there came from behind a kind of screen or shrine uncouth and terrible sounds such as he had never heard before. These, he was told, emanated from a spirit called Ukuk. He afterwards brought to me the instrument...
Page 37 - ... invested is stated to be more nominal than real.3 It is also interesting to note that in several cases the injured party or the accuser acts as executioner, but not as judge. Thus among some Australian tribes, " a man accused of a serious offence gets a month's citation to appear before the tribunal, on pain of death if he disobeys. If he is found guilty of a private wrong, he is painted white, and made to stand out at fifty paces in front of the accuser and his friends, all fully armed. They...
Page 10 - At some part of the ceremony he is shown a sacred wand; of this Ridley says — " This old man Billy told me, as a great favour, what other blacks had withheld as a mystery too sacred to be disclosed to a white man, that