The Kurdaitcha are the magickal executioners of the Australian Aboriginal people who will hunt those who violate tribal taboo, for years if necessary.
The kundela of the Kurdaitcha is a thin piece of pointed, hair-wrapped bone. It does not touch a man, but it will kill him. It does not pierce his flesh, but his soul. In an elaborate ritual a tribe's medicine man will charge the kundela with killing energy. At this time the Kurdaitcha are donning their traditional hunting garb of shoes made of hair and feathers that make no sound and leave no trace, blood, kangaroo hair, and a mask of emu feathers. The Kurdaitcha will hunt a man for as long as necessary. There is a story of a man who had been running from them for ten years and they were still pursuing him.
When the Kurdaitcha bring their quarry to bay one hunter will drop to his knee, point the kundela at the condemned man, and utter a curse. After a man has been cursed he is utterly shunned from the community. His family will mourn his death. Friends will not acknowledge his presence and speak of him only in the past tense, if at all. One Aborigine named Kinjika was flown to a hospital in Darwin in 1953. Western medicine could do nothing to help him and he died, painfully, in five days.
After the bone-pointing is complete the Kurdaitcha ritually bury the kundela.