 An "Illapurinja," literally "the changed one", is a female Kurdaitcha who is secretly sent by her husband to avenge some wrong, most often the failure of a woman to cut herself as a mark of sorrow on the death of a family member.Believed to be entirely mythical, the fear of the Illapurinja would be enough to induce the following of the custom.The practice of kurdaitcha had died out completely in southern Australia by the 20th century although it was still carried out infrequently in the north.