Now the leader of one of the parties caused one of the articles, a shield or boomerang, to be handed to him. It was passed from the last man to the first, all standing in a row, and each man passing it between the legs of the man in front of him, so that it was not seen until produced to the leader, who stood at the head of the line. He, on receiving it, threw it down between the parties with an important air. Then one of the other side threw on it some article in exchange, for instance, a bundle of cord for tying up the hair. In this way article after article was exchanged, and then the Kumari-kana asked, "Are you peaceable?" In this case the reply, I believe, was, "Yes, we are well satisfied." Each person took the articles he had obtained by barter.
If in these cases the parties are not satisfied, there is first an argument, and then a regulated combat between all the men present.[1]
Men of a Pinya use bunches of emu feathers in a decoration called Kabuluru. The head net is called Kaka-billi. The name applied to emu feathers is Maltara.
These are also used for dance decoration, called either Maltara or Ngaru. The decoration is a large bunch fastened to the head, or single feathers worked into a band which encircles the head. They are not, however, used in decorations which consist mainly of white cockatoo feathers.
The emu dance of the Dieri tribe is called Maltara. In the Molongo dance, which was brought down to the Dieri country from the north-east, bunches of Maltara were worn suspended from the hips (Fig. 15).
An instance of what seems to have been the punishment of an offence against the tribe came partly under my own knowledge. On my second expedition I had with me one of the Dieri from Blanch-water, which was at that time the farthest out-station in the far north of South Australia. He accompanied me through the country of his tribe, and beyond it as far as the Diamantina River, and when about where Birdville now is, he ran away fearing, as he told me afterwards, that I was going still farther north. Some time after
- ↑ Otto Siebert.
