Note 1283 — Chapter V · PIACULAR RITES AND THE AMBIGUITY OF THE NOTION OF SACREDNESS
Joseph Ward Swain translation
Gason, The Dieri Tribe, in Curr, II, p. 69. The same process is used to expiate a ridiculous act. Whenever anybody, by his awkwardness or otherwise, has caused the laughter of others, he asks one of them to beat him on the head until blood flows. Then things are all right again, and the one who was laughed at joins in the general gaiety (ibid., p. 70).