Evil spirit woman, Nadubi

The Aboriginal people are particularly afraid of the Nadubi spirit people, whose usual habitat is in the low scrub which often surrounds the springs at the base of the Arnhem Land plateau.

The Nadubi, not knowing the way to make fire, have to eat their fish and game raw. They are often so hungry that they steal the meat that Aboriginal people have placed in the trees overnight, the honey from their honey baskets, and sometimes even eat the ashes and charcoal where the fat has been spilt. No aboriginal has seen a Nadubi, although he has often heard them grunting in the darkness.

The Nadubi have barbed spines growing from their knees, their elbows and in the case of women, from their vulva. When they see an aboriginal travelling by himself, or drinking from the springs, the Nadubi sneak up behind him to shoot one of their barbed spines into his body. If it is known that the aboriginal has been near the haunts of the Nadubi, his friends immediately call the medicine man to remove the spine. Sometimes the medicine man succeeds, but more often the aboriginal dies.

[Charles P. Mountford, 'Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land vol. 1: Art, myth and symbolism', pg. 203]