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[Page 8}
Pere-Ally-
It was the practice sometimes when a man
was suffering from some internal pain to get
his wife to pere-ally for him: which was done
in the following way -
the patient sat or reclined
on the ground, a canoe shaped vessel of
titree back about a couple of feet long
half-filed with water was placed near him
and a cord of possum hair was passed
round his body a couple of time and
the ends held by the
woman who knelt leaning over the
little canoe of water. She then passed
the crossed ends of the cords rapidly
to and fro between her closed lips until
the blood dropped freely into the water
until it became
the colour of blood itself - The belief
being that the cause of the
pain would leave the patient's body by
the cord and finally through the woman's
blood into the water - I was too young
(written in left side margin) to enquire very deeply into the matter but no doubt faith would assist in the cure very materially -nor can I remember
[indecipherable?]