Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/82

 56 regulations concerning the distribution of food. He says: "Mr. Howitt does not say so." Mr. Lang has overlooked the passage, for Mr. Howitt does in effect say it. In the very paper which gives an account of Mungan-ngaur he tells us: "The Jeraeil [the mysteries of the Kurnai] and the Kuringal [those of the Murring] resemble each other in being intended to impress upon the youths a sense of responsibility as men, to implant in them by means of impressive ceremonies the feeling of obedience to the old men, and to the tribal moral code of which they are the depositories, and to ensure that, before the youth is permitted to take his place in the community, join in the councils, and marry, he shall be possessed of those qualifications which will enable him to act for the common welfare, and not only to support himself and a wife and family, but also to contribute a fair share to the general stock of food, to which his relatives are entitled in common with himself." If the mysteries are, as doubtless they are, traditional from a period long before money and tinned lobsters were known to the blackfellow, it is obvious that the precept must refer to the tribal regulations as to food. And, happily for Mr. Lang's satisfaction, Mr. Howitt is here explicit upon the point. Nor is he explicit only upon this point. He includes a general account of the common purpose of the mysteries both of the Kurnai and the Murring tribes which vindicates my criticism of them. I do not deny the existence of φιλία in Australian morals. What society could hold together without it? But the main purpose of the mysteries is different. It is discipline, the preservation of the social organisation; and that organisation is a savage one. If Mr. Lang merely meant that the blackfellows had "the elements of consideration for unprotected women, and of