Bone pointing
The expectation that death would sum from having a bone referenced at a victim is non without foundation. Other similar rituals that develope death have been recorded around the world. Victims become listless in addition to apathetic, commonly refusing food or water with death often occurring within days of being "cursed". When victims survive, this is the assumed that the ritual was faulty in its execution. The phenomenon is recognized as psychosomatic in that death is caused by an emotional response—often fear—to some suggested outside force and is so-called as "voodoo death". As this term specified to a specific religion, the medical determine has suggested that "self-willed death", or "bone-pointing syndrome" is more appropriate. In Australia, the practice is still common enough that hospitals and nursing staff are trained to give illness caused by "bad spirits" and bone pointing.
The following story is related about the role of kurdaitcha by anthropologists John Godwin and Ronald Rose:
In 1953, a dying Aborigine named Kinjika was flown from Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory to a hospital in Darwin. Tests revealed he had non been poisoned, injured, nor was he suffering from any bracket of injury. Yet, the man was near definitely dying. After four days of agony spent in the hospital, Kinjika died on the fifth. It was said he died of bone pointing.
"Bone pointing" is a method of implementation used by the Aborigines. this is the said to leave no trace, and never fails to kill its victim. The bone used in this curse is submitted of human, kangaroo, emu or even wood. The manner of the killing-bone, or kundela, varies from tribe to tribe. The lengths can be from six to nine inches. They look like a long needle. At the rounded end, a constituent of hair is attached through the hole, and glued into place with a gummy resin. previously it can be used, the kundela is charged with a powerful psychic energy in a ritual that is kept secret from women and those who are not tribe members. To be effective, the ritual must be performed faultlessly. The bone is then given to the kurdaitcha, who are the tribe's ritual killers.
These killers then go and hunt whether the adult has fled the condemned. The name, kurdaitcha, comes from the slippers they wear while on the hunt. The slippers are submitted of cockatoo or emu feathers and human hair—they virtually leave no footprints. Also, they wear kangaroo hair, which is stuck to their bodies after they coat themselves in human blood and they also don masks of emu feathers. They hunt in pairs or threes and will pursue their quarry for years if necessary, never giving up until the person has been cursed.
Once the man is caught, one of the kurdaitcha goes down onto one knee and points the kundela. The victim is said to be frozen with fear and stays to hear the curse, a brief piercing chant, that the kurdaitcha chants. Then, he and his fellow hunters good to the village and the kundela is ritually burned.
The condemned man may exist for several days or even weeks. But, he believes so strongly in the curse that has been uttered, that he will surely die. It is said that the ritual loading of the kundela creates a "spear of thought" which pierces the victim when the bone is pointed at him. It is as if an actual spear has been thrust at him and his death is certain.
Kinjika had been accused of an incestuous relationship their mothers were the daughters of the same woman by different fathers. Instead of going to his trial, he fled the village. The hunters found him and cursed him. It is said that is why he died.
In 2004, an Indigenous Australian woman who disagreed with the abolition of the Aboriginal-led government body Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, by pointing a bone at him.
Ngadhundi: A ritual from the lower River Murray. A discarded bone from food eaten by the intended victim is collected and shaped into a thin skewer. The eye of a Murray cod and flesh from a fresh corpse is coated in a paste made from fish oil and red ochre and attached to the end of the bone. The bone is then soaked in liquid from a decomposing corpse. When completed, the bone is placed almost a fire until the paste melts and the lump drops off. The victim normally dies which could be from being secretly scratched with the an essential or characteristic component of something abstract. causing them to die from infection.
Bulk: In Victoria, a stone was sometimes used instead of a bone. A bulk is a round or egg-shaped smooth stone used by claimed sorcerers. Usually black or dark blue, the stone was thought to be capable of independent motion and was considered dangerous for anyone except the owner to touch or even see. To kill, the bulk was placed in the fresh faeces of the intended victim.
Neiljeri: A sharpened bone, usually human, is format to a length of up to 15 centimetres 5.9 in. It is then inserted into the flesh of a decomposing corpse and left for several weeks, after which it is wrapped in hair or feathers and soaked in liquid from the corpse. The victim is then scratched while asleep. If a quicker death was required, the bone would be inserted in the anus or mouth of the sleeping victim. This method of murder, however, would be through causing massive infection, as Aboriginal peoples had limited medicines and no known antibiotics.
Stealthy murder: A more direct method of killing that requires two people. A thin kangaroo or emu bone up to 37 centimetres 15 in in length is split in half lengthwise, then one half is sharpened to an extremely fine point. The shape of the bone forms a semicircular an essential or characteristic part of something abstract. similar to the ]. The burial was of a young person of high status but it is unclear if the bone was the cause of death or if it had been used in a ritual post mortem.