In connection with the fact that in European society it is 'bad form' to point at a person to whom we are referring, the author passes in review the principal Australian customs with regard to the pointing bone as used in magic, with special reference to the influence of culture contact and immigration upon these customs. The facts show that the use of the pointing bone tends to be accompanied by anthropophagy and 'delayed burial'; the bone was originally taken from the dead body of the father representative. The practice reveals, as might be expected, an ambivalent attitude towards the father—on the one hand cannibalism and dismemberment represent the hostile elements, while on the other hand the dead man's bone is used to wreak magical vengeance upon his supposed murderer. An important social development of this ambivalency, to which the author draws attention, consists in the projection of the hostile feelings beyond the tribal frontier in the form of head-hunting expeditions—perhaps one of the most important psychological bases of war in its most primitive phases.