CIURINGA (CHURINGA, TURUNGA). - A term used to denote certain sacred objects of wood or stone, on which are carved or painted typical motifs, employed by the Australian natives (especially by the tribes of central Australia, such as the Arunta [= Aranda], Il-pirra, Iliaura, Unmatjera, Lorita, etc.). The natives also use this term to refer to the qualities possessed by the object.
Many myths speak of the ciuringa. For example, the Arunta believed that the bodies of the totemic ancestors who lived in the mythical epoch called alcheringa went underground after death, but their spirit, or rather, a part of their vital power, remained united to a natural receptacle which could be a tree, a spring, or a ciuringa. According to another belief, the spirits of the totemic ancestors enter women, make them pregnant so as to be reborn in human form. At death, then, the spirit returns to take refuge in its natural receptacle, the ciuringa, awaiting reincarnation in another woman. When a child is born, the father, accompanied by some elders, goes to the place where the mother believes she was made pregnant by a spirit and pretends to search for and find the ciuringa, which is then carefully placed in a large cave or rock crevice, a sacred depository of all the ciuringa of the clan. Such objects are removed from this place only on the occasion of initiations or particular ceremonies.
It is strictly forbidden to show the ciuringa to women and to those who have not been initiated, under penalty of death or other very severe punishment, such as the ordeal by burning sticks.
The designs on the ciuringa consist of little circles, dots, curved or broken lines, concentric circles, etc.; each of these signs represents, according to the case, trees, men, mythical beings, animals, etc. To interpret them, it is necessary to consult the men of the totem to which the ciuringa belong, since the signs and their arrangement can assume different meanings from time to time. Whenever the ciuringa are examined by the elders, they must be carefully rubbed. Naturally, the rubbing to which they have been subjected by the hands of generation after generation has greatly worn them down.
CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI. - Roman remains, and particularly inscriptions (which do not seem to have been transported from elsewhere), speak of a community under the name of Forum Iulii; from it the region of Friuli took its name. The site, situated on the Natisone, became the seat of the Lombard duchy of the frontier as soon as Albano, having crossed the upper valley of the Isonzo, entered Italy (569).
Epic legends collected by Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum recount the events of C. and the duchy in its struggles against the Avars and the Slavs, who also sought to penetrate into Italy. At the beginning of