beings (), from dreamed entities (), and the ancestral beings of the primal time of Creation (). By metaphoric extension whites fall outside the category of real beings () and are classified under , vagrant other world beings of malevolent intent. Lerrn nerp, literally spirit-child, was the animating figure at conception, the natural object that was the agent of concept was conceived of as an 'image' (mang). While the father's role in conception is acknowledged, pregnancy itself takes place only when the immigrates into the body during copulation. History The Dutch exploratory mission under Jan Carstenszoon landed in 1623 on the coast where the Yir-Yoront dwelt, in order to trade for necessities. The logbook reports that the Dutch found a people who had "no knowledge of precious metals or spices". All the goods the Dutch gave in exchange were still in use among the Yir-Yoront save for pieces of iron and beads. The iron had never been incorporated into their totemic ideology. A clash that in whiteman's memory became known as the "Battle of the Mitchell River," in 1864 between European colonists driving cattle under Francis Lascelles Jardine to the newly established station at Somerset and the probable forebears of the Yir-Yoront led to the death of some 30 odd tribesman with many more probably injured. It is judged to have been one of the rare instances in which Australian aboriginals stood their ground in the face of withering European gunfire for any length of time. During intensive field work in 1933–1935 the American anthropologist Lauriston Sharp failed to elicit any hint of a memory that the incident had occurred. The Australian anthropologist W.E.H Stanner cited the essay to question the very notion of a perduring and stable tradition within Aboriginal society, since it appeared that crucial events could vanish from memory within a brief period. Nonie Sharp however stated much later that the event was still fresh in the memories of the dispersed tribes living in Kowanyama down to the present day. Down to the 1930s the Yir-Yoront were relatively autonomous, living in areas not at that time subject to pastoralist expropriation. They were then drawn into the Mitchell River Mission and also, soon after, in 1942, at Edward River Mission (known to the Yir-Yoront as Lirrqar, though now known by its Kuuk-Thaayorre name, Pormpuraaw), with the ready availability of steel axes and fishhooks living on the missions afforded,