nd spun it into a cord, and this cord was commonly
worn by the men as a head-band. They said that thereby they "smelled the
dead," and that the smell made their eyes large and their sight keen, so
that in a fight they could see the spears coming and could parry or
avoid them.[177] Similar magical virtues are ascribed to the hair of the
dead by the Arunta. Among them the hair of a dead man is cut off and
made into a magic girdle, which is a valued possession and is only worn
when a man is going out to engage in a tribal fight or to stalk a foe
for the purpose of destroying him by witchcraft. The girdle is supposed
to be endowed with magic power and to impart to its possessor all the
warlike qualities of the dead man from whose hair it was made; in
particular, it is thought to ensure accuracy of aim in the wearer, while
at the same time it destroys that of his adversary.[178] Hence the
girdle is worn by the man who takes the lead in avenging the death of
the deceased on his supposed murderer; the mere sight of it, they think,
so terrifies the victim that his legs tremble under him, he becomes
incapable of fighting, and is easily speared.[179]

[Sidenote: Belief that the souls of the dead go up to the sky.]

Among the tribes of South-eastern Australia the Narrinyeri were not
alone in holding the curious belief that the souls of the dead go up
into the sky to live there for ever, but that their ghosts come down
again from time to time, roam about their old haunts on earth, and
communicate with the living. This, for example, was the belief of the
Dieri, the Buandik, the Kurnai, and the Kulin tribes.[180] The Buandik
thought that everything in skyland was better than on earth; a fat
kangaroo, for example, was compared to a kangaroo of heaven, where, of
course, the animals might be expected to abound.[181] The Kulin imagined
that the spirits of the dead ascended to heaven by the bright rays of
the setting sun.[182] The Wailwun natives in New South Wales used to
bury their dead in hollow trees, and when they dropped the body into its
place, the bearers and the bystanders joined in a loud whirring sound,
like the rush of the wind. They said that this represented the upward
flight of the soul to the sky.[183]

[Sidenote: Appearance of the dead to the living, especially in dreams.]

With regard to the ghosts on earth, some tribes of South-eastern
Australia believe that they can be seen by the living, can partake of
food, and ca