the voices finally fading away to an almost inaudible whisper.

If the Great Spirit, Ladjia Altjerra Knaninja, is gracious, the tap-root of the yam will be sent deep down into the earth near the Jay River and from there spread its laterals all over the country to supply the needs of the tribe.

When some of the most sacred ceremonies are performed, the oldest “relatives” of the presiding Knaninja often construct a coloured drawing upon the consecrated ground, whose purpose is similar to that of the “totem” stick above described. The drawing is executed in coloured down, both vegetable and bird. A space of suitable size, often measuring many feet in length, is cleared of grass and stones, and sprinkled with water, when it is ready to receive the down. In the case of, say, the “Ladjia Tjuringa,” the design takes the form of a number of concentric circles alternately red and white, from the outermost of which six equally spaced groups of red and white lines stand out radially. The enclosing border of the design consists entirely of white down. Vide Plate XXXVII.

Once constructed, this drawing, which is known as “Etominja,” is zealously guarded by one of the old men. If, peradventure, an unauthorized person happens upon the sanctified place, he is killed and buried immediately beneath the spot occupied by the design; thereupon the ground is smoothed again and the Etominja re-constructed. Nobody in camp ever hears what became of the person, and should any relative track him in the direction of the area known to be tabooed, he is horror-stricken and runs away.

While the old men are re-constructing the Etominja, they sing to the Knaninja as follows:

The next, and probably the most important, group of religious ceremonies is that dealing with Sex-Worship. For years past peculiarly shaped stones have been found in caves and among the possessions of the Australian aborigines whose shape was strikingly suggestive of a phallus, but hitherto no actual phallic ceremonies have been observed. It was my good fortune to witness such among the Aluridja, Arunndta, Dieri, and Cambridge Gulf tribes. From enquiries made of the old men, it appears that in former days this form of worship was practised considerably more than it is nowadays. New stone phallus are rarely made by the present tribes; those in their possession have generally been inherited from previous generations. The old men have the phallus in their keeping, and they are very loth to either produce or part with them.

The natives of the King Sound district in the north-west believe the origin of the phallus to be as follows: In the early times a scourge was raging among their forefathers, from the effects of which many were daily dying, when a hairy man and his mate, a woman of ordinary human form, came to earth from above. The evil was due to the exhalation of poisonous breath from the gaping jaws of a green monster resembling a crocodile. The stranger relieved the sufferers from the awful curse by showing them how to perform an operation upon their person which taught them to endure pain and protected them against future ravages of the pestilence. This great and benevolent stranger then took his departure, but left his name to designate the surgical operation which to the present day is performed upon the male members of the tribe; the name, strange though it may seem, is “Elaija”; and it is known, at any rate, as far east as Port George IV. But the tribe had become so weak through the terrible havoc the disease had wrought that the old men called him back and entreated him to stay. Elaija, however, took from a dillybag his female companion was carrying, a stone carved after the shape of a mutilated member, which he gave the name of “Kadabba.” When the old men gazed upon this object, they took fright and appealed to Elaija, but the good fellow had vanished. The stone has remained with the tribe ever since, and through the divine property Elaija endowed it with, their threatened extinction was eluded. Moreover, they continued to practise the operation on all young men because it made their members like the Kadabba of Elaija, which they knew had the power of multiplying their kind. And so the Kadabba became a sacred object whose procreative power they have learned to worship, thinking that by such observance they would augment their own capacities of sex. Vide Fig. 7.

One often reads, and I was under the same impression myself until I became better acquainted with the tribes, that the Australian natives do not connect the knowledge of conception with any intercourse which might have taken place between the sexes. This I find is not altogether correct, although usually the younger people are kept in complete ignorance on the subject. No doubt strangers are treated similarly when they put any pertinent questions to the old men on matters of sex. The old men believe in the duality of human creation, the spiritual and the material; sexuality is regarded as the stimulus of corporeal reproduction, but the spirit quantity is derived through mystic and abstract influences controlled by a “totem”-spirit or Knaninja. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising to note that the ceremonies of the phallus are transacted principally by the old men of the tribe who aim at the rejuvenation of their waning powers.

It is interesting to see the old men preparing for a ceremony which is to be dedicated to a Knaninja or Spirit of Sex, because they all endeavour to conceal the white hairs of their beards by rubbing powdered charcoal into them. The bark of the cork tree (Hakea) is used for the purpose; pieces of it are charred, crushed between the palms, and applied where needed. It is astounding what a difference this process makes to the appearance, and some of the old grey-beards really look as though they had been made twenty years younger by magic.

In the eastern MacDonnell Ranges stands a cylindro-conical monolith whose origin is believed to be as follows: Many generations ago, the paternal ancestors of the Arunndta walked from a district situated, as near as one can gather, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ediowie; they were known as the “Kukadja,” and were characterized by the enormous dimensions of their organs. These old men or Tjilba of the tribe migrated northwards to beyond Tennant’s Creek and settled in the productive “Allaia” country which surrounds the Victoria River. In that same district one finds, even at the present day, cave drawings of human beings with the anatomical peculiarities referred to (Fig. 8). At a later time, the head-man of the Kukadja, named “Knurriga Tjilba,” returned southwards to the Macdonnell Ranges. While roaming the hills, he espied two young women sitting on the side of a quartzite cliff, and without deliberation began to approach them. He was in the act of making lewd overtures when the guardian of the girls, a crow ancestor, caught sight of him and hurled a boomerang at him. The missile struck the great man and cut off the prominent portion of his body, which in falling stuck erect in the ground. The force of the impact was so great that the man bounced off the earth and fell somewhere near Barrow’s Creek. He bled so profusely that a clay-pan soon filled with his blood. Thus his followers found him, and overcome with sorrow they opened the veins of their arms to mix their blood with his. Then all the members of the party jumped into the pool and disappeared for ever.

The severed portion of the old man’s body, however, remained just where it fell and turned to stone. It has long been known as “Knurriga Tjilba Purra.”

The two young women can also still be detected in the cliff as prominent rock formations.

The stone has been protected by the tribe as long as the old men can remember, because they realize that it contains an inexhaustible number of unborn tribes-people. These mythic, foetal elements are generally recognized to exist in certain objects of phallic significance, and are called “rattappa.” The medicine men maintain that they can at times see the dormant living matter in the stone. It is on that account that it is regarded as sacred, and every now and then very secret and worshipful ceremonies are transacted near its base, the main objects of which are to multiply the future membership of the tribe and to preserve the sexual powers of the old men.

The Tjilba Purra naturally figures prominently in some of their ceremonies. In fact, it is reproduced and worn upon the head of the leading man during the functions. The sacred effigy consists of an upright column, about two feet high, composed of a stout bundle of grass stalks, in the centre of which the tjuringa is contained. It is decorated with alternating bands of red and white down throughout its length. This upright column represents the “Tjilba” or revered ancestor whose spirit is invoked to “sit” in the tjuringa; at the top of it a plume of wiry emu feathers, well powdered with charcoal (“unjia”) to give it a youthful appearance, takes the place of the forbear’s hair and beard. Standing at an angle with the central column, a similar though slightly smaller structure is intended for the “Purra” or phallus; it carries a plume of white cockatoo feathers at its end to represent the glans. Vide Plate XXXVIII, 2.

A landmark, of similar significance as the Tjilba Purra of the Arunndta, exists on the Roper River in the Northern Territory; it is a pillar of sandstone known as “Waraka.” Waraka is also the name of the great Spirit Father of the tribe. In very early times this man came to earth in a semi-human form, and made the country abound in game, animals, birds, and fish. Then he found a woman on the shores of Carpentaria Gulf who remained with him as his wife. Many children came of the union; and Waraka’s mate has since been looked upon as the mother of the tribe. The woman’s name was “Imboromba,” and to this day the tribe takes its name after her. Warraka had an enormous sex characteristic which was so ponderous that he was obliged to carry it over one of his shoulders. Eventually the organ became so huge that Warraka collapsed and sank into the earth. His burden remained, but turned to stone, and is now looked upon by the local natives as the great symbol of Nature’s generative power which first produced their game supplies and then the original children of the tribe; it is revered accordingly.

The Kukata have a somewhat similar legend of the origin of a stone of phallic significance, the name of the possessor of the large organ being “Kalunuinti.”

In the extreme north-western corner of Australia, in the Glenelg River district, the natural stone is replaced by an artificially constructed one which possesses the true shape of a phallus. The stone is about three feet long and stands in a vertical position in the ground commanding a ceremonial cirque as if intended to watch over the proceedings which are instituted there.

On the shores of Cambridge Gulf, a grotesque dance is performed by the men, during which a flat, wooden phallus is used, shaped almost like a tjuringa, about seventeen inches long and three inches wide at the middle. It is painted in alternate bands of red and black, running transversely across the two flat surfaces, which are, in addition, decorated with the carved representations of the male organ of generation. The dance takes place at night and is too intricate to describe in detail. It is introduced by the following chant:

The verse is repeated three times, and then the performers stamp the ground with their feet, about ten times in quick succession, the action suggesting running without making headway. Presently, and with one accord, the whole party falls upon the knees. The phallus is seized with both hands and held against the pubes in an erect position, and so the party slides over the ground from left to right, and again from right to left. An unmistakably suggestive act follows, when the men jerk their shoulders and lean forward to a semi-prone position, after the fashion generally adopted by the aborigines. Still upon their knees, the men lay the phallus upon the ground and shuffle sideways, hither and thither, but always facing the object in front of them. After several repetitions of this interact, the performers raise their hands, in which they are now carrying small tufts of grass or twigs, and flourish them above their heads, while their bodies remain prone. Then follow some very lithe, but at the same time very significant, movements of the hips. When, presently, they rise to their feet again, the phallus are once more reclaimed and held with one of the pointed ends against the pubes in an erect position. A wild dance concludes the ceremony, during which the men become intensely agitated and emotional; very often, indeed, their excitement, verging on hysterical sensibility, evokes an orgasm.

These occurrences must not be confused with the mixed intercourses which occasionally take place at the climax of friendly corrobborees to celebrate the meeting of neighbouring tribes. In this case we merely have to do with an inter-sexual embrace following an animated orgy, in which those members of both tribes standing in the general relationship of husband to wife take part.

The Dieri have a number of long cylindro-conical stones in their possession which are supposed to temporarily contain the male element of certain ancestral spirits now residing in the sky as their recognized deities. These are on an average about fifteen inches long and an inch and a half in diameter, circular in transverse section and pointed at one end. The old men have these phallus in their custody, and are very unwilling to let them get out of their reach because they believe the virility of the tribe is dependent upon the preservation of the stones. Should one of them be accidentally lost, the mishap is calculated as little short of disastrous; should a stranger find the object, the old men maintain that evil will come to him, and if he keeps it he will die. The stone is used principally during religious ceremonies connected with sex-worship, but it is also produced during some of the initiation practices. After he has submitted to the “gruesome rite” in his initiation, a novice is required to carry the stone, firmly pressing it against his body with his arm, until he is overcome by the exhaustion occasioned by the painful ordeal. By so doing, the young fellow’s virile powers are supposed to receive considerable stimulation through the agency of the phallus he carries. The object drops into the sand beside him; and, when he recovers, he returns to the men’s camp without it. Two of the old men thereupon track the lad’s outward course and recover their sacred stone to take it back to a place of safety.

The tribes inhabiting the great stony plains of central Australia and those adjoining them, and also the Victoria Desert tribes, are occasionally in possession of nodular ironstone and concretionary sandstone formations, of the “natural freak” kind, which simulate the membrum virile to a marked degree. These are believed to have been left them by a deified ancestor and are kept by the old men as a sacred legacy; they answer in every way the purpose of an artificially constructed phallus.

Closely allied to the phallic significance given to natural pillars of rock and smaller imitative specimens, is the idea that natural clefts in the earth represent a female character. Killalpaninna is the name of a small lake lying about fifty miles east of Lake Eyre in central Australia, it being the contracted form of the two words, “killa” and “wulpanna,” which stand for that typical of woman. It is the conviction of the Dieri tribe that when a person, especially one stricken with senility or enfeebled by sickness, at a certain hour passes from the water of the lake into the open, and is not seen doing so by the women, he is re-born and rejuvenated, or at any rate cured of his decrepitness. In this sense Killa-Wulpanna has from time immemorial been an aboriginal Mecca, to which pilgrims have found their way from far and wide to seek remedy and solace at the great matronal chasm which has such divine powers to impart. This fact is of particular interest, since a native, generally speaking, is superstitious about entering any strange water, and does so very reluctantly, thinking that, by doing so, the evil spirit will foist disease upon him through the medium of the water.

A singular stone exists in Ellery Creek, a short distance south of the MacDonnell Ranges, which is called “Arrolmolbma.” It was at this place that a tribal ancestor, named “Rukkutta,” a long time ago met a young gin, “Indorida,” and captured her. The stone at the present time shows a cleft and two depressions which are supposed to be the knee-marks of Rukkutta. On account of the intimacy which took place, the stone is believed to be teeming with rattappa, which entered by the cleft. The ancient Arunndta men used to make this stone the object of special veneration, and during the sacred ceremonies which took place at the spot, they used to produce carved slabs of stone they called “Altjerra Kutta” (i.e. the Supreme Spirit’s Stone or Tjuringa). These inspirited slabs of stone, being of the two sexes, were allowed to repeat the indulgent act of Rukkutta and Indorida, while the natives themselves rubbed red ochre over the sacred stone of Arrolmolba, and engaged in devotion. The act of rubbing red ochre over the surface of the stone was supposed to incite the sexual instinct of the men and to vivify the virile principle of the tribe. By this performance the men believed they took from the pregnant rock the embryonic rattappa which in the invisible form entered the wombs of the gins and subsequently came to the world as the young representatives of the tribe they called “kadji kurreka.”

Among the cave drawings of Australia, designs are here and there met with depicting scenes from ceremonies having to do with phallicism and other sex-worship. In the picture reproduced from the Pigeon Hole district on the Victoria River (Fig. 9), one notices a man of the Kukadja type who was named “Mongarrapungja” in the act of dancing around a sacred fire with an ancestral female. The organ of the Kukadja, it will be observed, passes into the flame, whence a column of smoke is rising to find its way to the body of a gin which is drawn in outline above the dancers. Here we have the representation of a traditional ceremony associating the Kukadja’s phallus with the impregnating medium supplied by fire, which, we have already learned, may be looked for in the column of smoke.

The Australian tribes, without exception, believe in the existence of an evil spirit, or Demogorgon, who prowls their camps at night. It is on this account that natives are loth to leave the glare of the camp-fire, fearing they might be caught and injured by the spirit. In reality, they picture this fellow much as we do a ghost. Ordinarily he is invisible, and during the day haunts the graves of the dead tribesmen. At nightfall he opens the grave and walks about under cover of the dead man’s skeleton; the natives often imagine they can hear the bones rattling as he passes near them; and they shudder with fear. It is on this account that they imagine the spirit to be not brown like themselves, but white, the colour of bone. If he catches anybody roaming alone, he will bite his victim in the abdomen and the latter perceives an unpleasant feeling or pain in that region. So far as one can ascertain, the symptoms of this damage are those of an acute attack of dyspepsia. The Arunndta call this ghost “Iltdana.”

There is another evil creature which is at large after dark; it is known by the Arunndta as “Erinnja.” It is supposed to have fleshy parts, a tail, and large projecting teeth; it runs like a dog, and possesses only one large toe on each foot. If it catches anybody unawares, it will turn the captive’s head back to front. The natives claim that this monster has a predilection for opening people’s navels with a bone nose-stick. It takes children from their mothers and ties them to trees for the great mythical dogs to feed upon; for this reason the terrified mothers often place meat outside their huts to appease Erinnja’s hunger. The Nangarri or medicine men imagine they can detect the presence of the brute when it is about, and they immediately exhort the people by informing them of the impending mischief.

At times it is necessary to protect a person or party from likely harm or witchcraft emanating from the supposed presence of an evil spirit. It may be that a warrior is indisposed and is anticipating molestation, or a number of men may wish to perform a sacred ceremony during which the evil spirit may be thought an undesirable listener. The Nangarri or medicine man alone has it in his power to exorcise the demon. And after the surroundings have been clarified of all deterrent contamination, he proceeds to mark off an area around the man or party concerned with selected stones which he consecrates. This area, mostly oval or circular in shape, remains a strict taboo to all beyond its confines, and is believed to disenchant any morbid influence the evil spirit may bring to bear upon it. If, in the former case, he wishes to further protect his patient, he places some green gum leaves over the sufferer’s body. Vide Plate XXXIX.

Although a spiritual Evil Being is feared more than a Good is revered, the existence of the latter is faithfully admitted, so far as our personal experience goes, by both the central and northern Australian tribes; and such a belief has, moreover, been found by reliable observers among the now practically extinct tribes of southern Australia. According to the late Dr. A. W. Howitt, the natives of Victoria and New South Wales used to speak with bated breath of a great Supernatural Being which once inhabited the earth and now lives in the sky. The belief is original and not in any way due to missionary influence. The oldest myths, such as only the untaught and unsophisticated grey-beards can tell, contain references to the existence on earth in ancestral times of convivial beings, kindly disposed towards the people, who eventually found their way to the sky by way of towering trees, since destroyed by fire. The Supreme Being is called by the Arunndta “Altjerra,” by the Fowler’s Bay natives “Nyege,” and by the Aluridja “Tukura.” The benign Altjerra roams about the sky (“Alkurra”) and keeps a watchful eye upon the doings of the tribes beneath him. The natives are so convinced of his ubiquitous presence that the Arunndta, for instance, have a favourite exclamation when committing themselves on oath in the form of “Altjerr’m arrum,” meaning something like “Altjerra hear it”; that is, an appeal is made to Altjerra as witness to what is said, much after the way a school child endeavours to convince one of the truth of an utterance by exclaiming: “God strike me dead if I tell a lie.”

The etymology of the Supreme Being’s name is often really poetical. The Sunday Islanders, for instance, recognize such a Super-Being whom they call “Kaleya Ngungu.” This name embodies in it the ideas of the past as well as of the future. “Kaleya” in that locality means the “finish” of anything, or even “Good-bye,” while “ngung” stands for that which is to come or is to be. The implication is that this Great Being has emerged from the obscurity of bygone days and continues to live into the still greater uncertainty of times ahead. From a religious point of view, then, we note here a recognition of a spiritual quantity whose influence has been exercised uninterruptedly from the earliest past, and will be continued again, and forever.

So, too, the name of the Aluridja God, “Tukura,” is composed of two words expressing the ideas of genesis and eternity. In the same sense, the Arunndta regard their demi-gods, or “Altjerrajarra namitjimma,” as being the creators of life, although as such they themselves continue to live uninterruptedly and ad infinitum. And we have already noted that they roam for ever in the great celestial “walk-about,” which is known as “Altjerringa” by the Arunndta, “Talleri” by the Kukata, and “Wirrewarra” by the Narrinyerri.

To this consummate home all spirits of the dead find their way and there join their spirit ancestors. In fact, so many have gone to the happy ground that most tribes look upon the stars as the camp-fires and fire-sticks of their departed relatives and friends. It is on this account that many stars have been named after notable tribesmen, the natives imagining that they can discover the new addition in the firmament after the deceased has been interred. Whenever a shooting star is observed travelling towards the earth, it is taken to be the spirit of one returning temporarily to its terrestrial haunts.