It is not without a reason that yellow ochre here bears some friendly affiliation or intimate association with a particular person. This arises from the fact that at certain religious ceremonies one group always wears only the one colour, or must always be painted with one and the same colour. Hence the substantive usage of the word, as indicated under 8B, for 'the yellow one' implies as much as 'the one who must always paint himself with yellow ochre'. He belongs, so to speak, to the yellow ochre region.
This banquet is prepared in honour of the children, so that they may thrive. It bears a certain resemblance to a christening dinner. In most cases it is prepared by the child's mother, after she has regained her lost strength following on the child's birth, and when the child is beginning to [show signs of] favourable development. In the majority of instances, however, the preparation of this banquet is delayed until rain has fallen, as the result of which it is easier to stock the table for a large gathering. So then, after the mother of the recently-born babe has gathered a good quantity of seed, etc., the nearest of kin are especially invited to the ngurawikani-buka, as well as anyone who may have assisted at the time of the birth. The friends and relatives thus congregated evidence their joy in the infant, and congratulate the parents at having such a fine child. Conversation, of course, is mostly of a nature that one would be pleased to hear. This banquet in the child's honour is repeated from time to time, in order to demonstrate how [well] the child is developing.
If, for example, a wealthy man were to arrange a banquet, in order to show what wealth he possessed and that he was able to do it (or in whatever other way one could express it), that would be a munataranibuka. Even a 'native' man arranges such a banquet, when in his opinion he has an abundance of wealth. Several days after heavy rain has fallen, a tour of inspection is made to see what the country looks like. Several men go out and criss-cross the land in every direction. If they return with the favourable report that it has rained on every hand and that things are beautifully green everywhere, then the time has arrived to make provision for the future. The people are now placed in the position where they can go to every place from which they have been prevented hitherto through [scarcity] of water, in order to gather seed. First a quantity of seed is gathered and a banquet (munatarani-buka) prepared, to which people from the entire neighbourhood are invited, for the native folk now feel [somewhat] collar-proud. "he [very] name of the meal already indicates this. Extravagant feasting now takes place. Praises are lavished especially on those who lay claim to the talara muramura demi-god of rain, for it was due to their incantations, performed by various men, that the talara Mura rain-god let himself be disposed to send down the rain. This festivity bears a certain resemblance to our harvest festival. When the banquet is over, there is mutual discussion on how the proceeds of the harvest can be jointly gathered in, and how and where it can be stored up for the future. Agreement is reached that they shall go out in small groups, to gather in seed from here and there, and store it up in holes [in the ground]. (More particulars about this can be found in another volume, under the heading: 'How provision is made for the future').
This banquet is prepared when an offence or an indiscretion against [tribal] custom has been committed, or even when a neighbour has been disturbed in his night's sleep. The following may be quoted by way of an example. [Suppose] the case has arisen where a child is burnt in the fire, so that for the duration of the night it cries out in pain. The immediate next-door neighbour has had his night's peace disturbed on account of the child's crying, so that he couldn't sleep. The child's father is sorry about this. At the same time he has been nintali ashamed, embarrassed. To pacify the child, he sits alongside it and chants his and the child's mura song. Reuther: "Gesangsgebete", which is in slight contrast to his usual term, "Gebetsgesaenge". On the following morning the child's father searches around to procure [sufficient] food to compensate his next-door neighbours or fellow camp occupants for the said disturbance during the night, in order that his embarrassment may subside and nobody may remain offended at the child's crying. Hence the name kalingani-buka compensating or reconciling meal. The neighbours [of course] are pleased at this. They accept the invitation, and, to show on their part that they are sympathetic, all the menfolk sit down together around the child and help the father to sing its mura song, so that it may be pacified and go to sleep. That is the reason why this type of meal is called turani-buka. turana means as much as to sleep. So the meaning of turani-buka is sleep-inducing meal, and relates to the child whom the invited guests have helped to lull to sleep. In this way all amends have been made and reconciliation brought about.
As far as importance is concerned, this banquet is very much on a par with the munatarani-buka. The only difference is that in the case of the munatarani-buka the honour pertains more to the "deities", whereas in this instance it pertains more to a father on account of [his] child. Let me quote an example. Children are playing together outside of the camp, in the open. Thus, friends from another camp, who are on their way to pay the local inhabitants a visit, meet these children at play. Taking one or the other child up in their arms, they express their delight at it. As soon as the child concerned has reached father and mother at home, it relates in typical childlike fashion what took place. The parents [naturally] feel immensely flattered about their lovely child, especially the father. During the course of the evening he pours from his overflowing heart the songs of his mura. (I would not like to go so far as to say that he THANKS his mura supernatural ancestor, Reuther: "Obergott". as I would not knowingly like to attach more meaning to a pagan point of view than actually applies). Nevertheless, a word of sacred Scripture holds good in this connection: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks". [Mathew 12,34]. Meanwhile, the father goes about preparing a meal for his kind friends. On the following morning the meal is ready. He invites his kind visitors on this occasion to eat with him, at his camp. In this way the father wishes to show that he is a man of substance, for he has provisions set aside for [such] a feast. And, to make his natural heathen superiority look even more conspicuous, he wants at the same time to embarrass (nintali ngankana) his camp-fellows, or, to use a better expression, 'place them in the shade'. And now, the particular person who embraced and fondled his child is offered the most prominent seat. Summoned by the child's father, he selects the choicest food for himself and divides the rest among the friends who have accompanied him.
If, for example, two men of the same age (kalu-mara) have for some reason or another been separated from each other since youth, so that they have grown up in different areas and no longer recognise each other on meeting as adults in later life, the above [festive] meal is arranged subsequent to their renewal of old friendships.
If, for example, a stranger enters the territory of another tribe and extols it as being a beautiful, fair and goodly country, the inhabitants feel themselves flattered. They quickly prepare a meal for the eulogist, to demonstrate that such remarks are heard only too gladly.
This is the name given to those men who go out to fetch ochre for decorating their bodies for corroborees ("dances"). The name is associated with buka [food] in as much as the [women] folk, who stay at home until the men return, go out to collect food with which to prepare a festive meal for them when they come back.
Here, in the case of this word, in contrast to ngankana to make, the manner and means of the totemic increase-ceremonies Reuther: "die Art und Weise betreffs der Goetterverehrung". clearly meets the eye. In the case of [7], [8] and [11] [in this section], as well as in numerous other instances, the 'native' does not ngankana birds, rats and rain (as we see in [the above application of] this word), but karkana them. What, now, is the difference between talara karkana to conjure up rain and talara ngankana to make rain? The difference consists in this, that, when a 'native' man talara karkana conjures up the rain, he calls on the rain-ancestor Reuther: "Regengott". through the songs [he has] acquired and learnt from the muramura, without at the same time imitating [the acts of] the ancestral Reuther: "geschichtlichen" 'historical' muramura by painting and decorating himself. But, when a 'native' man talara ngankana makes rain, he does so in co-operation with many other people, in which case the legend of the muramura is imitated in symbol and [outward] form. The analogy is fairly well met, when I say that it is the same relationship as exists between [private] prayer in one's inner chamber and the prayers [that are offered] in public worship in the church.
Here the difference between a sacred ceremony and a mere corroboree becomes evident. The sacred ceremony has been handed down by the fathers, whereas a mere corroboree offers [social] amusement. The former is of a religious character, while the latter is not.
The wiljaru, that is those who have transgressed the moral code, receive these scars on their backs.
The white down-feathers of pelicans are pasted an to the [human] body with blood. These are regarded as very beautiful, if they stand out well against a black body. Hence a lot of attention is devoted to sticking the feathers on, so that they do stand out well. tiriputu nauja kintjalkuru, nulupara ngaiana wima wirila nganai down-feathers he clean (beautiful), this [man] us ceremony pass by will this man is wearing very beautiful down-feathers; he will outshine every one of us (look smarter than we) at the ceremony
Bird-feathers of various colours are used in [ceremonial] decoration.
These are the various symbols, in [feathered] designs and ochre, Reuther: "in Schmuck und Farbe". These feathered designs are stuck on to the body with the aid of human blood as soon as it has become tacky. such as the muramura [himself] once wore and which are still worn to this day by his followers (adherents) at the various ceremonies (corroborees).
This is done at corroborees.
The so-called corroborees are the [ritual] re-enactments Reuther: "Nachformungen" of the muramura and their legends. The term used is: 'to stage [or perform] a mura'. This last sentence is inserted as a marginal note. Each individual muramura had set himself the task of asking the Mura for a share in providing mankind [with food]: emus, fish, rain, seed, and so forth. If a man wishes to perform a ceremony for [the increase of] emus (which happens every year just prior to the breeding season), he wears the same decorations as those once worn by the [relevant] muramura. He is painted with the same colours [or symbolic designs]; he sings the same ceremonial songs, and attempts to repeat the same [acts], just as the muramura once did these things. That is the origin of the various ceremonies, the various decorations, and the different [forms] of make-up Reuther: "Anstreichen mit Farbe". at the present-day corroborees. It implies an immeasurable lack of knowledge and a false conception of things - to which even some Mission personnel unfortunately subscribe - [to believe] that many muramura were animalized, i.e. turned into animals. No! The muramura remains a human being, although he appears in the legend in the attributes, nature and manner of the particular animal on whose behalf he directs his invocatory song to the deity. He has wings, lays eggs, or, as a crocodile, smashes out his eyes with his tail, digs himself a hole [in the ground] like a lizard, or lives in the water, etc., precisely as when a world traveller, under the symbolism of a "migratory rat", publishes his travel experiences in book form, like a Russian professor has done. The reference here is obviously to Professor Yaschenko who visited the Killalpaninna Mission 27 July - 6 August 1903. The legend presents the muramura under the guise of a certain animal. In the process, extraordinary things often become interwoven, as happens in the case of all mystic pagan legends Reuther: "Goettergeschichten" (Compare, for example, the mountain goblins Reuther: "Winkelmaenner" and other obscure beings of the Germanic pagans). The entire form and style of heathen worship and of everyday civil life bears the imprint of the muramura. Everything that a muramura has done is permissible in present-day heathendom: even a form of prostitution which I would not care to describe, something that should be possible only amongst heathens, but which nevertheless has its likeness in the [big] cities of Christendom, purifications, blood-revenge, circumcision, marriage, family life, strangulations, the collecting of tobacco and ochre, the pounding of seed, and burial. In fact, the whole style of thinking of the local pagans finds its prototype Reuther wrote "Abbild" 'copy, likeness'; however, I presume he meant "Vorbild 'example'. in the muramura.
This is done, for example, when the first in-gathering of some seed variety is brought into camp. When this seed variety is ripe, two men go out, chanting invocatory songs and swinging a bundle of emu feathers, to 'sing' the seed. In the act of so doing, they name the localities by whose inhabitants the seed is [to be] gathered in. On the following day these two men take three others with them, who gather in some of the seed. Before this ceremony has been [performed], no woman is allowed to collect any seed. The wives of the two first-mentioned men clean the seed to the accompaniment of ceremonial chanting, and pound it small. The two singers receive the first of this pounded seed to eat out of the dish. This done, they grind several dishfuls on their own until well into the night. Next morning all the people who are present are called together, [so that] this firstfruit of the season may be served up to them. Whilst songs of praise are being chanted (munatarana) by the two men already mentioned, this seed-pulp is consumed. [Already] on the same day, after the festal meal is over, the women (on whom this duty henceforth devolves) begin the task of gathering in the seed.
e.g. the feathers that have been stuck on [to one's body] for a sacred ceremony.
symbols [of ochre] painted on the body.
This is done prior to a sacred ceremony. Reuther: "Goetterfeierlichkeit".
the body hairs are singed off.
i.e. a hollow piece of wood, into which a man blows at night when a corroboree (dance) is about to begin, so that the people congregate.