In the course of the afternoon a large group of natives, so-called Wirrameyunna, arrived, some of whom I had never seen and who had never been in Adelaide since the colony was founded. They had barely sat down when there was another argument, again about a girl who was promised as a wife to Murroparuitpinna, but who is staying with one of the men mentioned above. I didn't see the beginning, but I was told that Murroparuitpinna had beaten the girl, but then he was beaten again by her relatives. Infuriated by this, he ran across the river to his hut, fetched his spears and came back at his enemy like a madman, his beard between his teeth and with every sign of an attack. The others now held him back from all injury, but one hardly believed that peace had been established when Muliariburka furiously attacked a woman with a kaja who, as they said, had previously been his wife, but had later left [him], then taken another husband and ( 195 ) was now a widow after his death. Fortunately, instead of hitting the body as intended, the first throw hit the bone of the arm resting on the body, on which the tip of the spear broke, so that the second throw with the same spear was harmless, and Wirraitpinna's safe arm held him back from further abuse of the poor defenseless woman. This barbarism(183) was all the greater because the woman was carrying a small child on her back and had one or two walking or sitting next to her.

During or before this performance, the Wirrameyunna, the strangers in the lead, made a face to leave, offended, it seemed, by the unfriendly reception on the part of Murroparuitpinna, while our old regulars, as Ityamaitpinna and so on, immediately sent a few young people after them, who came before them and brought several back with them, among them also the strangers. After the latter had sat there silently for a few moments, one stood up, took a ring-tailed lemur and used it to give another a blow over the head as if he wanted to shatter him, then gave the weapon to the other and patiently and out of friendship allowed him to give him a blow that was perhaps even more violent, so that the blood ran down both of their backs in streams ( 196 ). They wanted to repeat the same thing with other of their friends by putting the weapon in their hands and presenting their heads, but a third person kindly intervened and prevented it.

If you ask about the cause of such stupid customs, you will get the answer: Kurror arrendi, there is "to be ashamed", which I take to mean that they want to show how little they are afraid of blows and pain, even though no fight or fight has taken place. Which opinion seems all the more likely to me since some people hit the Tainmendaburka mentioned on the 15th of this month in the same way, with the explanation, Karro karretoai, that is, "so that he would not be ashamed."

Among the Wirrameyunna who arrived today was one named "Captain Mitchel"(184), who some time ago received news to the local natives that he had stolen the wife of a Nor[d]man and then killed the husband. Br. Teichelmann and me accused him of this as soon as we saw him, and not only did he not deny it, but he fell silent when we told him that the murderer would go to hell as a bad person, and he was obviously frightened, so that he said that it was a bad ( 197 )