- When a native for some reason desired to kill a
member of another camp or tribe, he consulted the medicine man of his
camp, and arrangements were made for a 'Kurdaitcha Luma.' . . . Both
medicine man and Kurdaitcha wore remarkable shoes. These had the form of
a long pad made of human hair, with numberless emu feathers intertwined,
and with a certain amount of human blood to act as a cementing substance.
" . . . Both ends of the shoes were rounded off, and were exactly similar
to one another, which has given rise to the erroneous idea that their
object was to prevent the wearer being tracked . . ."
But no other explanation is offered.
Breaden says tracks of a man wearing these emu-feather shoes are very
indistinct, but has no certain knowledge of their use. Warri, looking at
the bark sandals, said, "Black-fella wear 'em 'long a hot sand."
Questioned about the emu-feather shoes, he gave the usual answer, "I
dunno," and then added, probably to please me, as I had suggested the
explanation, "Black-fella no more see 'em track, I think."
It was clear that no good results were likely to follow further search in
this locality, for the tracks were so numerous, and crossed and recrossed
so often, that nothing could be made out of them. The country to the
North being so uninviting, I altered our course to North-East, and again
to North, when we sighted a smoke, and, following tracks, camped on them.
"Mud and oatmeal for breakfast," September 14th; truly the sage spoke who
remarked, "What does not fatten will fill." Such was our fare, and the
only doubt we had was lest the compound should be turned into brick by
the sun's heat! However, it was sustaining enough to last us all day,
occupied in tracking. Two dry wells, connected by a well-trodden pad half
a mile long, rewarded our labours; and here we had the conviction forced
upon us that the blacks themselves were hard pressed: we could see where
dust and dirt had been recently removed from the bottom of the wells,
both of which were over fifteen feet in depth, and one over twenty. Were
the natives hard pressed for water, or had they heard of our coming, and
were by smokes guiding us to empty wells? Unpleasant speculation, when
one's tanks contain nothing but a nasty brown liquid, and the country
looks as if it had not known rain for years!
September 15th. Another smoke to the North-East; again we steer for it,
as if following a will-o'-the-wisp. The continued semi-starvation, hard
work, and heat was beginning to leave its mark. None of our friends or
relatives would have recognised us now! Clothed in filthy rags, with
unkempt hair and beards, begrimed with mud, and burnt black by the sun
wherever its rays could penetrate our armour of dirt, we were indeed a
pretty lot. That night we tied the camels down - there was no feed for
them; besides, I wished them handy in the morning, for we could not be
far from natives now unless the smoke had deceived us.
