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We always considered him a centenarian. It was through him that I heard some of the best of the old legends, with an interpreter to make good our respective deficiencies in each other's language. In the lives of blacks, or rather in their deaths, the Gooweera, or poison sticks or bones, play a great part. A Gooweera is a stick about six inches long and half an inch through, pointed at both ends.
The hair is taken to the Boogahroo a bag of hair and gooweeras which is kept by one or two powerful wirreenuns in a certain Minggah. The wirreenun on receiving the hair asks to whom it belongs. Should it belong to one of a tribe he is favourably disposed towards, he takes the gooweera or hair, puts it in the bag, but never sings the I death song' over it, nor does he warm it.
If it be known that a man has stolen a lock of hair, he will be watched and prevented from reaching the Boogahroo tree, if possible. These gooweeras used to be a terrible 'nuisance to us on the station. A really good working black boy would say he must leave, he was going to die. On inquiry we would extract the information that some one was pointing a gooweera at him.
This is used for sickening' or killing men. A Guddeegooree is a similar stick, but much smaller, about three inches in length, and is used against women. A man wishing to injure another takes one of these sticks, and warms it at a small fire he has made; he sticks the gooweera in the ground a few inches from the fire.
Should he only wish to inflict a lingering illness on his enemy, he refrains from burying the gooweera, and in this case it is possible to save the afflicted person. For instance, should any one suspect the man with the gooweera of having caused the illness, knowing of some grudge he had against the sick person, the one who suspects will probably intercede for mercy.
Then he ties a ligature tightly round his right arm, between the wrist and elbow, and taking the gooweera, or guddeegooree, according to the sex of his enemy, he points it at the person he wishes to injure, taking care he is not seen doing it. Suddenly he feels the stick becoming heavier, he knows then it is drawing the blood from his enemy.
While it is warming, he chants an incantation, telling who he wants to kill, why he wants to kill him, how long he wants the process to last, whether it is to be sudden death or a lingering sickness. The chant over, and the gooweera warmed, he takes it from the fire.
Birrahmulgerhyerh are blacks with devils in them, who, armed with bags full of poison-sticks, or bones called gooweera are invisible to all but wirreenuns or wizards. Others are warned of their coming by hearing the rattle of the gooweeras knocking together.
If the intercessions prevail, he produces the gooweera, rubs it all over with iguana fat, and gives the intercessor what fat is left to rub over the sick person, who, on that being done, gradually regains his normal condition after having probably been reduced to a living skeleton from an indescribable wasting sickness, which I suspect we spell funk.
Then sometimes the whole camp was upset; a strange black fellow had arrived, and was said to have brought gooweeras. This reaching the boss's ears, confiscation would result in order to restore peace of mind in the camp. Before I left the station a gin brought me a gooweera and told me to keep it; she had stolen it from her husband, who had threatened to point it at her for talking to another man.
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