CHAPTER XIV

Summary

MAGIC

Almost every action in the life of a Central Australian savage from the day of his birth to that of his death is associated, in some way or another, with magic. No sooner is the Arunta child born than a black line is painted over his eyebrow, in order to ward off sickness. How, or why, it should do so does not in the least trouble the savage parents. They have been told by the old men that it will, and that is quite enough for them. The idea of putting any of their beliefs to the test of experiment never enters their heads. If the young child avoids sickness then, of course, it is the result of the black line; whether there be really any relationship of cause and effect between the means adopted to secure a given result and the result which actually follows, is a question which they never ask. If the desired result does not follow, then it means that some other person has worked evil by counter magic, and the savage goes on his way perfectly content with this very simple explanation.

In some Australian tribes the power to perform magic, whether to hurt or to help any one, is possessed by only comparatively few people, but in the Arunta and, in fact, all the Central tribes any one, man and woman alike, can perform magic, though it is more generally practised by men than by women, and there are certain forms all knowledge of which is confined strictly to the men.