
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- INTRODUCTORY NOTE
- Contents
- YARRUUN PARPUR TARNEEN
- CHAPTER I TRIBES
- CHAPTER II POPULATION
- CHAPTER III CHIEFS
- CHAPTER IV PROPERTY
- CHAPTER V CLOTHING
- CHAPTER VI HABITATIONS
- CHAPTER VII CLEANLINESS
- CHAPTER VIII DOMESTIC FURNITURE
- CHAPTER IX COOKING AND FOOD
- CHAPTER X TOOLS
- CHAPTER XI LAWS OF MARRIAGE
- CHAPTER XII CHILDREN
- CHAPTER XIII NAMES OF PERSONS
- CHAPTER XIV SUPERSTITIONS AND DISEASES
- CHAPTER XV DEATH AND BURIAL
- CHAPTER XVI AVENGING OF DEATH
- CHAPTER XVII GREAT MEETINGS
- CHAPTER XVIII AMUSEMENTS
- CHAPTER XIX WEAPONS
- CHAPTER XX ANIMALS
- CHAPTER XXI METEOROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, ETC
- CHAPTER XXII NATIVE MOUNDS
- CHAPTER XXIII ANECDOTES
- CONVEYANCE, BY PRINCIPAL CHIEFS TO JOHN BATMAN, OF 100,000 ACRES OF LAND, BETWEEN GEELONG AND QUEENSCLIFF
- VOCABULARIES.—WORDS; ANIMALS; RELATIONSHIPS; NAMES OF PLACES; GRAMMAR AND SENTENCES; NUMERALS
- NOTES
CHAPTER XVI - AVENGING OF DEATH
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- INTRODUCTORY NOTE
- Contents
- YARRUUN PARPUR TARNEEN
- CHAPTER I TRIBES
- CHAPTER II POPULATION
- CHAPTER III CHIEFS
- CHAPTER IV PROPERTY
- CHAPTER V CLOTHING
- CHAPTER VI HABITATIONS
- CHAPTER VII CLEANLINESS
- CHAPTER VIII DOMESTIC FURNITURE
- CHAPTER IX COOKING AND FOOD
- CHAPTER X TOOLS
- CHAPTER XI LAWS OF MARRIAGE
- CHAPTER XII CHILDREN
- CHAPTER XIII NAMES OF PERSONS
- CHAPTER XIV SUPERSTITIONS AND DISEASES
- CHAPTER XV DEATH AND BURIAL
- CHAPTER XVI AVENGING OF DEATH
- CHAPTER XVII GREAT MEETINGS
- CHAPTER XVIII AMUSEMENTS
- CHAPTER XIX WEAPONS
- CHAPTER XX ANIMALS
- CHAPTER XXI METEOROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, ETC
- CHAPTER XXII NATIVE MOUNDS
- CHAPTER XXIII ANECDOTES
- CONVEYANCE, BY PRINCIPAL CHIEFS TO JOHN BATMAN, OF 100,000 ACRES OF LAND, BETWEEN GEELONG AND QUEENSCLIFF
- VOCABULARIES.—WORDS; ANIMALS; RELATIONSHIPS; NAMES OF PLACES; GRAMMAR AND SENTENCES; NUMERALS
- NOTES
Summary
A dying person, who believes that sorcery and incantations are the cause of his illness, intimates to his friends the number of persons in the suspected tribe whom they are to kill. Sometimes the individual who is believed to be the cause of his illness is named by the dying person.
When the offending tribe is not otherwise revealed, the question is decided, after the body has been put up into the tree, by watching the course taken by the first maggot which drops from the body and crawls over the clean-swept ground underneath. If the body has been buried, the surface of the grave is swept and smoothed carefully; then the first ant which crosses it indicates the direction of the tribe which caused the death of the deceased. If possible, one of the members of that tribe must be killed.
A consultation takes place, and when an individual is fixed upon as the cause of the death, he receives warning that his life will be taken. If he escapes for two moons, he is free. Immediately after the warning, a small party of the male friends and relatives of the o deceased prepare themselves by eating sparingly for two or three days, and getting together, each for himself, a supply of cooked food. When ready to start, they paint and disguise themselves, that they may not be recognized by the friends of the person whom they intend to kill. They proceed, well armed, by night to the vicinity of the residence occupied by their intended victim.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Australian AboriginesThe Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, pp. 68 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1881