Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/538

512 But the rule is, that a certain ceremony brings together a number of tribes. Thus the Kuringal of the Yuin is attended by people from Manero, Shoalhaven, and Braidwood, and they therefore form what may be called a "community," which in this sense includes a number of tribes. In other words, all the tribes which attend the same ceremonies form an intermarrying community larger than any one tribe, and approaching what I have called a "nation." Intermarriage usually takes place in a friendly manner, but also in what may be called a "veiled hostility," as will be seen in speaking of the tribal meetings within fifty miles of Maryborough (Queensland). The community which thus meets periodically for the purpose of initiating its youths into the status of manhood, and membership in the tribe, is in principle also that of the united exogamous class divisions. Calling the classes for convenience A and B, then it may be said that it is the men of A class who initiate the youths of class B, and vice versâ. A class cannot initiate its own young men, but both classes cooperate in this ceremony. On the other hand, in those tribes which have no longer any class organisation in a vigorous state, it is the local organisation by its assembled initiated men which conducts the ceremonies. Such a case is that of the Kurnai and the Chepara tribes.

Speaking broadly, it may be said in all but exceptional cases that initiation ceremonies of some kind, having invariably certain fundamental principles in common, are practised by the native tribes all over Australia.

These ceremonies may be conveniently separated into two types, namely one which extends over most of the eastern part of Australia, and another which occurs in the western half. The line which separates these types may be roughly indicated as extending from the mouth of the Murray River to the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. But this line only approximately shows the range of those who practise circumcision, or circumcision together with sub-incision, from those who have ceremonies of the character of the Bora or Kuringal.

The ceremonies which I shall take as an illustration of