Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA AND AUSTRALIA
- CHAPTER II TRIBAL ORGANISATION
- CHAPTER III SOCIAL ORGANISATION
- CHAPTER IV RELATIONSHIP TERMS
- CHAPTER V MARRIAGE RULES
- CHAPTER VI TRIBAL GOVERNMENT
- CHAPTER VII MEDICINE-MEN AND MAGIC
- CHAPTER VIII BELIEFS AND BURIAL PRACTICES
- CHAPTER IX INITIATION CEREMONIES, EASTERN TYPE
- CHAPTER X INITIATION CEREMONIES, WESTERN TYPE
- CHAPTER XI MESSENGERS AND MESSAGE-STICKS—BARTER AND TRADE CENTRES—GESTURE LANGUAGE
- CHAPTER XII VARIOUS CUSTOMS
- APPENDIX
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAPTER XI - MESSENGERS AND MESSAGE-STICKS—BARTER AND TRADE CENTRES—GESTURE LANGUAGE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA AND AUSTRALIA
- CHAPTER II TRIBAL ORGANISATION
- CHAPTER III SOCIAL ORGANISATION
- CHAPTER IV RELATIONSHIP TERMS
- CHAPTER V MARRIAGE RULES
- CHAPTER VI TRIBAL GOVERNMENT
- CHAPTER VII MEDICINE-MEN AND MAGIC
- CHAPTER VIII BELIEFS AND BURIAL PRACTICES
- CHAPTER IX INITIATION CEREMONIES, EASTERN TYPE
- CHAPTER X INITIATION CEREMONIES, WESTERN TYPE
- CHAPTER XI MESSENGERS AND MESSAGE-STICKS—BARTER AND TRADE CENTRES—GESTURE LANGUAGE
- CHAPTER XII VARIOUS CUSTOMS
- APPENDIX
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
In all tribes there are certain men who are, so to say, free of one or more of the adjacent tribes. This arises out of tribal intermarriage; and, indeed, marriages are sometimes arranged for what may be termed “state reasons,” that is, in order that there may be means of sending ceremonial communications by some one who can enter and traverse a perhaps unfriendly country, with safety to himself and with security for the delivery of his message. In some cases these ceremonial messengers, as will be seen later on, are women. But the bearing of merely friendly messages within the tribe is usually by a relative of the sender. The message itself is, in other tribes, conveyed by what the whites in certain districts call a “blackfellow's letter”—a message-stick. There has been much misunderstanding, not to say misstatement, as to the real character of these message-sticks, and the conventional value of the markings on them. It has been said that they can be read and understood by the person to whom they are sent without the marks on them being explained by the bearer. I have even heard it said that persons, other than the one to whom a stick is sent, can read the marks with as much ease as educated people can read the words inscribed on one of our letters.
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- The Native Tribes of South-East Australia , pp. 678 - 735Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010