LAW OF THE BUSH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22046, 28 February 1935, Page 8

LAW OF THE BUSH

QPEIMITIYE ABORIGINES BREACH OF TRIBAL RULE MURDER TRIAL AS SEQUEL [feoh oun OWN cohrkspondent] SYDNEY. Feb. 21 Because of the mention of tribal customs, Judge Wells, of the Northern Territory Supreme Court, sitting at ■'Alice Springs, deferred passing sentence on two aborigines, Numberlin and Nangee, who had been found guilty of murdering another native, Kaiumen. The accused's counsel had emphasised that Numberlin and Nangee had followed tribal tradition, which demanded that a native who showed corroboree marks to a lubra should die. KaiUmen's widow, Judy, was a pathtetic figure as she gave evidence. Through the half-caste interpreter she told how Kaiumen did not return after going out with the two other natives. They told her that Kaiumen had gone after a dog, but after a while she became afraid. She picked up Kaiujnen's tracks and went many miles over rough country looking for her lost husjband. When she failed to trace him, she enlisted the services of two other iubras. They picked up the tracks, and jrame to a place where Kaiumen was found dead. "He Had to be Killed" In the Numberlin, who fcpeaks good English, made a frank of how Nancee and he shot Kaiumen dead: When asked for a reaison, Numberlin said that if an aborijginal showed a corroboree mark to a : lubra, he had to be killed. Kaiumen had shown his corroboree mark to Judy, who is Nu'mberliu's sister. Numiberlin, Nangee, Kaiumen, and three tether natives went into the hills and lit a fire. Numberlin asked Kaiumen ifor an explanation of his breach of the jtribal custom. Then, as Judge Wells remarked, Kaiumen evidently realised Jie was "on the spot." He went for his fepears and woomera, and Nangee and {Numberlin shot, him dead. Numberlin. Nangee and Kaiumen belonged to the . Pitehentara tribe, and (after the trial, Sydney Walker, a wellinformed half-caste who acted as the interpreter, gave some information iabout the tribe's rites. Pointing the "death bone" is practised by the Pitehentara, as is "KurSaitch," a secret inter-tribal murder pact, according to Walker. The Pitehentara language "consists of fewer ' jfchan 200 words., Both lubras and the men are remarkable trackers. These natives show no antipathy to white men, ajid will always disclose water holes and obtain food for a stranger. 'Although on the whole they are a happy people, there is much internal warfare, tooth inter-tribal" and between groups, over such matters as wife-stealing and particularly sacred corroboree rites. In these rites, the "Mudha mullada" f secrets are jealously guarded from the iubras and uninitiated. The Corroboree Mark

The corroboree stones and "bull Roarers" are always hidden from women. Under penalty of death, lubras are not • allowed within two miles of these initiations. The corroboree mark on his arm which Kaiumen showed Judy, his lubra. is an incision in the median veil# inside the elbow. In certain occult ceremonies this vein is cut with a knife. The arm is tied with a ligature, and blood from the mother, brothers, and old men of the tribe is poured upon the initiate. states that the Pitchentara tribe knows nothing of the white man's jaws and does nof; understand the word "Court," but understands the meaning "©f a These tribal jites, he says, are from the beginning of time, before the Old Man, and before "Grandmother." The natives keep all totems and stones, which are called Immakoontunga, in caves which it is death for the uninitiated or women to enter. If there is any infringement of these laws word is given, by the,old men to kilj. If the boy-or boys chosen to kill the offender do not obey, their own death is certain: If they kill, they are in conflict with the white man's law.