connection with a medicine-man of the Jupagaik tribe, which belongs to the Wotjo nation.
In the Jajaurung tribe the office of doctor is alleged to be obtained by the individual visiting the world of the spirits while in a trance of two or three days' duration, and there receiving the necessary initiation.[1]
The Wurunjerri believed that their medicine-men became such by being carried by the ghosts through a hole in the sky to Bunjil, from whom they received their magical powers.
The Theddora, Wolgal, and Ngarigo believed that Daramulun was the source of the magical powers of their medicine-men.
Among the Narrang-ga the Gurildra or medicine-men were said to be able to communicate with departed spirits, and to receive from them the power of inflicting evil magic on others by songs. It is also said that a Gurildra could not remove the evil magic which he had inflicted; but that it could only be removed by another Gurildra.[2]
The Yuin thought that a boy could be trained to be a Gommera. The Gommera Waddiman said of himself that he was taken as a boy by a great Gommera, who taught him to be one, and that he obtained his power from Daramulun.
Collins says of the Port Jackson tribe that the general idea was that a man became a Car-rah-di by sleeping at the grave of a deceased person. "During that awful sleep the spirit of the deceased would visit him, seize him by the throat, and opening him, take out his bowels, which he replaced, and the wound closed up."[3]
The Wiradjuri medicine-men professed to go up to Baiame for their powers. But they also trained their sons to follow in their steps. The account which follows was given to me by a Wiradjuri of the Murri sub-class and the Kangaroo totem, and is an excellent instance of the beliefs held as to such matters. The narrative was given voluntarily during a conversation I had with him about the Burbung
