Wonghi 5
The oldest and most experienced man of the
tribe is chief, in so much that his advice and
assistance is asked and followed but there
is no supreme is asked and followed but there
is no supreme head or ruler among them

There are no special news carriers or messengers
-the young men perform the office as occasion

If a man be murdered, his class men
(were totemic brethren?) retaliate by taking
the life of the murderer, or one of his class
or relatives

In cases of offence against tribal custom
for instance if a man marry, or have improper
relations with a woman of a forbidden class,
the members of his class kill him.

The Wonghi believe in a future plan where they will
live much as they do here and they also believe
in the existence of a place where a higher order
of beings exist, but these beings or spirits are
not the spirits of deceased mortals. They believe
that the spirits of deceased kindred float about
in space in the vicinity of the earth, but do not
make themselves visible [through - crossed out] though they
have power to inflict injury on whom
they please to inflict it.

[written in left side margin]
But is there a head
man for each class
or each totem
If so how are these
men chosen or elected?

Are these messengers
chosen by the old men?
Does their office confer
immunity from
molestation? Do they
carry any emblem?

What relatives?
Cognates or agnates?
Is the offender summoned
to an ordeal or expiation
by battle? If so by whom
and where and who

If the offender were for
instance Ipai = Emu
and the woman Ipatha = Emu
who would kill him,
and what would be done
to her and by whom

xI will try
to make
as to this

How much if any of
this first belief is
due to that which
they have learned
from the whites?

Whence do they think
disease come?

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