IDNO

LS.109089.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Arunta.
ERATHIPA stone, with hole through which
the spirit children emerge, and charcoal
line painted above it.
v.s.2g. N.T. p. 337." [manuscript in ink]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Aranda [also known as Arunta; Arrarnta; Arrarnte; Arunda]

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Baldwin Spencer, Walter [Spencer and Gillen 'Arunta' Fieldwork, Summer 1896 - 1897]

Date

?November 1896 - ?February 1897

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Context: The significance of the Erathipa stone is explained in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"However, to return to the Erathipa stone. There is on one side of it a round hole through which the spirit children are supposed to be on the look-out for women who may chance to pass near, and it is firmly believed that visiting the stone will result in conception. If a young woman has to pass near to the stone and does not wish to have a child she wi11 carefully disguise her youth, distorting her face and walking with the aid of a stick. She will bend herself double like a very old woman, the tones of whose voice she will imitate, saying, " Don't come to me, I am an old woman." Above the small round hole a black line is painted with charcoal, and this is always renewed by any man who happens to visit the spot. It is called Iknula, and a black line such as this, and called by the same name, is always painted above the eye of a newly-born child, as it is supposed to prevent sickness. Not only may the women become pregnant by visiting the stone, but it is believed that by performing a very simple ceremony, a malicious man may cause women and even children who are at a distance to become so. All that has to be done is for the man to go to the stone by himself, clear a space of ground around it, and then, while rubbing it with his hands, to mutter the words "Arakutja wunka oknirra unta munja aritchika," which means, literally translated, "Plenty of young women, you look and go quickly." If, again, a man wishes to punish his wife for supposed unfaithfulness, he may go to the stone and, rubbing it, mutter the words "Arakutja tana yingalla iwupiwuma ertwa airpinna alimila munja ichakirakitcha," which means, "That woman of mine has thrown me aside and gone with another man, go quickly and hang on tightly;" meaning that the child is to remain a long time in the woman, and so cause her death. Or again, if a man and his wife both wish for a child, the man ties his hair-girdle round the stone, rubs it, and mutters, "Arakutja thing-unawa unta koanilla arapirima," which means, "The woman my wife you (think) not good, look."
The word Erathipa means a child, though it is seldom used in this sense, the word Ambaquerka being most often employed. Similar Erathipa stones are found at other spots. There is one near to Hermannsburg on the Finke River, another at the west end of the Waterhouse Range, and another near to Running Waters on the Finke." (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 337-338) [WV 29/1/2009]