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 ) Nor[d]man and not our compatriot. In addition, we immediately spoke to Ityamaiitpinna* about him, often looking at him and he at us with fearful looks. Ityamaiitpinna actually told us something very damaging about him, namely that he had also killed a white man before. What is the missionary to do in such cases?

December 21st, 1839.
Those Wirrameyunna who had not returned yesterday usually all returned this morning, but not "Captain Mitchel", who seems to have been driven away by his guilt-tainted conscience. One of the strangers who had been hit like this by his friends yesterday spent the greater part of the day with me. The pain of the wound in his head, almost an inch deep, not allowing him to go into town with the others. With such new arrivals you can see most clearly how detrimental contact with white people has on the minds of the natives, as they are always much more willing and modest than those who have been in contact with Europeans ( 198 ) for a long time.