kadaitcha

Noun

kurdaitcha (plural kurdaitchas)

1. An aboriginal evil spirit; a sorcerer.
   • In the morning sharp eyes would be dilated by tracks surely made by the dreaded Kurdaitcha without his feathered feet. Those prints would be followed back to the tree, where the Kurdaitcha put on his great boots and mounted a bike to go back to Mitford.1953, Arthur Upfield, Murder Must Wait, page 105
2. An expedition taken to heal or avenge someone afflicted by evil sorcery.
   • The “kurdaitcha” is a party consisting of a medicine-man and three others, sent by the elders of a local group to avenge a magically-caused death, the offender having been beforehand identified.1968, Gerald Clair Wheeler, The Tribe, and Intertribal Relations in Australia, page 150
3. A man chosen to go on such an expedition.
   • ‘[…]One day when he was going to a creek to catch fish he saw a Kurdaitcha man - one who was going out alone to kill an enemy, and he had shoes of a very strange kind.’1987, Catherine Martin, The Incredible Journey, page 77
4. The boots worn by someone on such a mission, typically made from emu feathers.
   • Now Detective–Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte has solved his last case and laid away his kurdaitcha boots for ever.1964, Walkabout, volume 30, page 40