Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/156

74 "All this time an incessant shouting, singing, and dancing had been kept up. After this the boys were placed in a cluster together, with their heads lowered and their hands crossed over their breasts, whilst the most ridiculous antics were performed by the rest of the natives, who, mounted on each other's backs, threw themselves on the ground, whilst the boys were made to walk over their prostrate bodies, and executed a multitude of evolutions with their spears and shields. The final operation was then performed: the gums being lanced with the bones before mentioned, a stick was applied to the tooth, and a large stone employed to strike it out. As each boy lost his front tooth, the gum was closed up, but the blood was not allowed to be washed or wiped off. He was then furnished with the belt of manhood, boomerangs, &c., and joined in the corrobboree dances, which concluded the ceremony."

In the Rev. J. G. Wood's Natural History of Man (vol. II.), several accounts are given of the ceremonies attendant on becoming men. Mr. Wood describes the mode of extracting the front teeth; the practices of coradjes when they give power to the young men over the various beasts of chase; the marking of the body by gashes or scars; the secret of the magic crystal; the ceremony of depilation; and the rites as practised by the natives of the Port Lincoln district. It is an interesting chapter in his work, and it appears to have been written with care.

When youths have advanced to the second degree, that is when they are sixteen or seventeen years of age, they have, Mr. Wilhelmi says, to undergo the operation of circumcision. Whether it is ever performed at an earlier age is not known, but in all parts where it has been witnessed the boys were nearly of the age mentioned. The custom, it is believed, was not followed in the most southern parts of Australia, but it is known on the western shores of Spencer's Gulf, on the north-west coast, at the Gulf of Carpentaria, at Cooper's Creek, and in Central Australia. It is by no means general, and probably originated, as suggested by Bennett, with those tribes of the north who have intercourse with the Malays.

It is performed at that period of life when natives have to give proofs of courage and endurance before being admitted to a certain rank in the tribe, and it may safely be assumed, I think, that it is not connected in any way with even a trace of religion. It is most likely of modern introduction, and has been seized upon as a test to be applied to the neophyte, because of the pain and alarm it occasions. It has the effect, however—as other similar rites practised by them certainly have—of limiting the population; and may, as Eyre says, be a wise ordination for that purpose in a country that in many parts is of a desert and arid character.

One of my correspondents on the Paroo, who has witnessed the operation, states that he was called about an hour before daylight and invited to a camp where about twenty blacks were assembled, near a tree at some distance from the main camp. They were dressed in most gorgeous corrobboree array; they were continually singing, and when some were exhausted, others commenced.