NATIVE CEREMONY
UNWILLING ABORIGINAL ARREST OF TRIBAL CHIEF As the result of the carrying out of an old tribal ceremony, an aboriginal named Alexander Brown, aged 65, is an inmate of Herberton Hospital in a weak condition, while the leader of the tribe has been arrested on a charge of doing bodily harm. The Cairns police have been advised that Brown was travelling to the Mount Garnett district, when he met a tribe of aborigines. They decided to perform the old custom of "cleaning" on him, but Brown bitterly protested against going through the painful ceremony. When he tried to escape he was stunned by a blow from a tomahawk, and in the presence of the tribe he was stripped, and five pieces of flesh cut from the back of his body. Each of the tribe then drank his blood, after which the wounds were sewn up and a corroboreo was held. Finally Brown was decorated with mud and floral decorations and taken to a near by station.
The police have been searching for other members of the tribe.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21845, 6 July 1934, Page 12
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179NATIVE CEREMONY New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21845, 6 July 1934, Page 12
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