Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-09T22:09:29.969Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CHAPTER XVI - AVENGING OF DEATH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

Get access

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 Aborigines
The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia
, pp. 68 - 71
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1881

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • AVENGING OF DEATH
  • James Dawson
  • Book: Australian Aborigines
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511706127.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • AVENGING OF DEATH
  • James Dawson
  • Book: Australian Aborigines
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511706127.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • AVENGING OF DEATH
  • James Dawson
  • Book: Australian Aborigines
  • Online publication: 07 September 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511706127.019
Available formats
×