All Natives Of Australia Believe In Sorcery And Witchcraft On The Part Of Certain Of Their Own Tribe, Or Of Others.

To enable them to become sorcerers, certain rites must be undergone, which vary among the different tribes.

Around Adelaide they have at one period to eat the flesh of young children, and at another that of an old man, but it does not appear that they partake more than once in their life of each kind. When initiated, these men possess extensive powers, they can cure or cause diseases, can produce or dissipate rain [Note 88 at end of para.], wind, hail, thunder, etc. They have many sacred implements or relics, which are for the most part carefully kept concealed from the eyes of all, but especially from the women, such as, pieces of rock crystal, said to have been extracted by them from individuals who were suffering under the withering influence of some hostile sorcerers; the pringurru, a sacred piece of bone (used sometimes for bleeding), etc. The latter, if burned to ashes in the fire, possesses mortiferous influence over enemies. If two tribes are at war, and one of either happens to fall sick, it is believed that the sickness has been produced by a sorcerer of the opposite tribe, and should the pringurru have been burnt, death must necessarily follow.

[Note 88: Also an American superstition. - Vide Catlin, vol.i.p. 134. "Sorcerers or rain makers, for both offices are generally assumed by one individual." - Moffat's South Africa, p. 305.]

As all internal pains are attributed to witchcraft, sorcerers possess the power of relieving or curing them.

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