. Natives of Australia. Euahlayi name, may as a rule not be eaten ; in fact, inthe tribe in question, it is more important than thetotem. Sometimes a big medicine-man will take the 228 NATIVES OF AUSTRALIA form of his yunbeai in order to work mischief. Tracesof this belief are found at various points in Austraha,but it is uncertain whether it is widely distributed ornot. Among the Arunta, and some of the central tribes,there is a curious development of totemism ; the totemgroups do magic for the totem to promote its increase,and even eat a small quantity of their own totem, con-trary to the or
. Natives of Australia. Euahlayi name, may as a rule not be eaten ; in fact, inthe tribe in question, it is more important than thetotem. Sometimes a big medicine-man will take the 228 NATIVES OF AUSTRALIA form of his yunbeai in order to work mischief. Tracesof this belief are found at various points in Austraha,but it is uncertain whether it is widely distributed ornot. Among the Arunta, and some of the central tribes,there is a curious development of totemism ; the totemgroups do magic for the totem to promote its increase,and even eat a small quantity of their own totem, con-trary to the ordinary totemic rule to make it free toother people. The Intichiuma ceremonies, as they aretermed, are long and complicated ; they are fully de-scribed in the works of Spencer and Gillen. How farthey ever existed in other parts of Australia it isdifficult to say; there is no evidence of their havingbeen practised in the south-east, but on the north-westcoast similar rites seem to be known under the nameof tarlo. Plate 31. CHAPTER XIV MAGIC Intichiuma ceremonies. Evil magic, pointing. Womansmagic. Hair in magic. Crystals. Kidney fat. Rain-making. Initiation of medicine-men. Queensland magic,dooming a person. Magic is a term of which no satisfactory definitionhas yet been given. Under the general head, however,may be classed firstly a number of Central Australianceremonies which can hardly be termed religious,inasmuch as they depend for their efficacy, it appears,rather on the supposition that nature moves by fixedlaws than that personal beings and volition controlits operations. The Arunta tribe is split up into a number of localgroups, each with a head man (Alatunja), and each isassociated with some particular totem, which, as wehave seen, is a species of animals or plants. One localgroup may be emu, another kangaroo, a third grassseed, and so on ; they have to perform annually theIntichiuma ceremony of their particular totem, whichhas as its object the multiplication of the ani
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