In the Wotjobaluk tribe such fights arose out of some ill-feeling, when men, for instance, would kill an owlet-nightjar and tell of doing so in the camp. The women would then in their turn kill a bat, and carry it to the camp on the point of a stick which had been thrust through it, and with a piece of wood in its mouth to keep it open. This was held up in triumph, the oldest woman walking first and the younger ones following, and all shouting "Yeip! Yeip!" (Hurrah!)
The men met them with clubs and boomerangs, the women being armed with their digging-sticks, and a great fight would ensue. At times the men used spears against the women, who defended themselves by turning them aside or breaking them with their sticks.
In such a fight, which might last, off and on, for an hour, women have been speared; but, on the other hand, they have been known to give the men a good drubbing with their sticks.
I have traced the totems as far as the Buandik, but the Narrinyeri do not seem to have had them. They occur in the tribes of the Murray River and of Riverina, and as far as the northern boundaries of the Wonghibon.[1]
In South-Western Victoria the men look upon the bat (Ngung-ngutch) as sacred to them, and the women claim the small nightjar (Eratiyerk).[2]
The Wurunjerri not only had the Bat (Ngunun-ngunut) and the Owlet-nightjar (Ngari-barm-goruk), but the Kurnai totems also, under the names of Bunjil-boroin, meaning "twilight," for the Emu-wren, and of the Wurn-goruk for the Superb Warbler.
The Yuin sex totems are the Bat and the Emu-wren as the men's brother, and the Tree-creeper (Tinte-gallan) as the women's sister.
At Port Stephens the Bat and the Tree-creeper are the Gimbai or "friends" of the men and women respectively. The men took the bat under their protection, and woe betide any woman who attempted to injure one. The bat was also called Kuri, that is "man."[3]
It was said in the Turrbal tribe that the small Bat made the men, and the Night-hawk made the women. Mr. Tom
- ↑ A. L. P. Cameron.
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ William Scott.
