Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/544

518 the same as that which we know of, and which was given to our fathers by that great Biamban you know about." The men looked at it with every appearance of awe, but said nothing, and then returned to their fire.

When we parted it was understood that I should send up my messenger to Brupin, who would consult with the other Gommeras, and I shortly after sent a man of the Krauatun Kurnai as my messenger to the Yuin to ask them to call together a Kuringal, and to let me know when they were ready, and I would go up to help them. This man was, in fact, the proper intermediary between the Kurnai and the Yuin. His mother was a Ngarigo, and his wife was Yuin, so that he was as one of themselves; and he had been, moreover, initiated at the Ngarigo Bunan.

He carried from me the bull-roarer which I had shown to Yibai-malian and Brupin, and delivered it with my message to the latter at Bega. In going to and from that place he journeyed on foot a distance of about four hundred miles over some of the most mountainous country in South-east Australia. He made the journey a second time before the arrangements were completed, and he brought back a message to me that Brupin would send his messenger carrying my mudthi to the principal Gommera of the Kurial, who lived at the Shoalhaven River, asking him to bring his people to a meeting on the east side of the Bega River, not far from the coast.

Word was sent to me when the Murring were assembling. Being, so to say, in the position of a Gommera of the Kurnai, I was told that I was to bring a contingent of my men to the meeting; and I accordingly arranged with my messenger that he was to take certain of the Kurnai, starting from the Snowy River mouth, and meet me on the upper waters of the Delegate River.

The term Kuringal, which means "of the bush," or "belonging to the bush," includes two slightly different forms of the initiation ceremonies, which are called respectively Bunan and Kadja-wallung. The difference and resemblances of each will be seen from the following statements. But for the moment it will suffice to say that, broadly speaking, the