woman (Kurnai), or speak in the presence of one, without covering his mouth with the corner of his skin rug or blanket (Yuin), but it does not account for the corporal punishments inflicted for other offences.
I shall detail these cases at length further on, but as an instance will refer to the Pinya, or armed party, of the Dieri tribe, which goes out to kill some man who is considered by the old men of the tribe (tribal council) to have brought about the death of some one by evil magic. Such offences as these are therefore punished by the actual authority of persons in the tribe, and not merely by public opinion or the effect of "education," and it is evident that there must be some executive power by which such offences as these are dealt with and punished.
I shall now show what this executive power is, and how it acts in an Australian tribe.
In the Dieri tribe, as in all others of those kindred to it, the oldest man of a totem is its Pintiaru, or head. In each horde there is also a Pinnaru, who may happen also to be the head of a totem. But it does not follow that the head of a totem or of a local division has necessarily much, or even any, influence outside his totem or division. I remember such an instance at Lake Hope where the Pinniaru was, by reason of his great age, the head of the eagle-hawk totem, but he had otherwise little personal influence, for he was neither a fighting-man, a medicine-man, nor an orator. He was the head of his totem by reason of his age, but was not the Pinnaru of the local division. The Pinnarus are collectively the Headmen of the tribe, and of them some one is superior to the others. At the time when I knew the tribe, in 1862-63, the principal Headman was one Jalina-piramurana, the head of the Kunaura totem, and he was recognised as the head of the Dieri tribe. Subsequently Mr. S. Gason, as an officer of the South Australian Mounted Police, was stationed in the Dieri country for six years, and was well acquainted with this man. He has described him to me as a man of persuasive eloquence, a skilful and brave fighting- man, and a powerful medicine-man. From his polished manner the whites called him "the Frenchman."
