As he observed, his attention was drawn to one tall strikingly built skirmisher on the other side who displayed exemplary courage and prowess and stood out from the others.
He was a Ngan'gimerri, who introduced himself once hostilities had ceased, and Stanner realized that he was in front of a man whom Europeans in the area called 'Smiler' with a repute for being 'the most murderous black in the region.
[8] Stanner interprets Durmugan's distinctive and powerful character in terms of an initiation he managed to undergo, despite his deracinated past, on the Victoria River, around the time of WW1.
For those round Daly River the key myth of Angamunggi (the All-Father, Rainbow Serpent) had died off, as he was thought, in the midst of the rapid changes in their world, -the loss of land, disappearance of game and proliferation of deadly diseases- to have abandoned them.
His only equal, and, in dance, superior was a Murrinh-Patha warrior and trickster called Tjimari, whose story was given lustre after he made friends with the Australian poet Roland Robinson.