Howitt to Fison 17/10/1877

Transcription - Page 4

who you may remember gave us his family
pedigree always speaks of Bruthen mungee as
his "father" - totally ignoring Bembinkel who
really holds that relation to him, the former being
his paternal uncle. In Sturts desert I
became friends with a tribe - or rather subtribe
of the Dieri speaking blacks who insisted
upon taking me to see an old man whom
they called "Pinna Pinnaroo" (Pinna = great)
They treated him with the utmost reverence.
I found him to apparently [sic] 80-90 years of age
(covered with a thick fell of hair). He gave orders
to the blackfellows which seemed to be implicitly
obeyed. Thus I think we shall find that
the only government among them was by the
elders and was in no way hereditary. To this
must be added I think the influences of the
conjurers - or rather the "Bards" who were
not medicine men i.e. Doctors. They professed
to communicate with the spirits of the departed
and composed songs + corroboree dances.
They evidently had much influence and
may be regarded as the germ of a priesthood.
The Doctors were Doctors only and professed to cure [could - crossed out]
diseases by incantations taught to them in
sleep by their dead relatives.