. Across Australia . st place the decoratingmaterial used is always birds down (Figs. 117, 118).Every man seems to have a stock of this. If they arefortunate enough to kill such a bird as an eagle-hawkthey secure a good supply. It is usual to take the birdscrop out and stufF it full of down; and it is amazing whata quantity can be compressed into this small feature of importance is the small number ofindividuals who take part in any one performance. Usuallyit is only one or two, and the greatest number we eversaw, amongst the Arunta, was seven, and in this instancethere were real
. Across Australia . st place the decoratingmaterial used is always birds down (Figs. 117, 118).Every man seems to have a stock of this. If they arefortunate enough to kill such a bird as an eagle-hawkthey secure a good supply. It is usual to take the birdscrop out and stufF it full of down; and it is amazing whata quantity can be compressed into this small feature of importance is the small number ofindividuals who take part in any one performance. Usuallyit is only one or two, and the greatest number we eversaw, amongst the Arunta, was seven, and in this instancethere were really four separate parts of the ceremony,acted at spots twenty or thirty yards away from oneanother. The men who perform the ceremonies are, for thetime being, supposed to represent the ancestors and tobehave as they did and be decorated as they were in theAlcheringa. The whole thing is purely symbolic, and theancestor is rarely represented as doing anything moreinteresting than looking around, wriggling his body about. Vli;. 117. I \\ n|. iiiF F\ir Ix-ail-iliLxs ri| llic neck licail of an emu.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1912
