Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/553

IX The Kabos during the day take their boys out to hunt for food, and remain away until evening, when the men, having cleared a space near the lesser Bunan, capable of accommodating twenty or thirty people, take the boys there for the ceremony of knocking out the tooth.

From this point the Bunan and Kadja-wallung ceremonies are the same, and it will be convenient, before proceeding farther, to describe the other ceremonies up to this point. For this purpose I will now describe the visit which I made to the Murring, when they were ready for the Kuringal which had been held at my suggestion.

Having received notice from Yibai-malian and Brupin that the people were assembling for the Kuringal, and having sent off my contingent of the Kurnai under the guidance of my messenger from the Snowy River, I went to the south coast and there found about one hundred and thirty blacks,—men, women, and children,—waiting for me. They represented mainly the two great divisions of the Murring of the south coast, but there were also people from as far as Bateman's Bay and Braidwood, who accompanied the Shoalhaven contingent. Besides these, there were also a few of the Biduelli. After waiting a few days for the Kurnai, I learned that owing to their guide having been attacked by ophthalmia, they had returned from the Coast Range before descending to the sea-coast where we were waiting for them.

Thus some time was lost, which I could not make up, and in order that the whole of the ceremonies should be completed while I could remain, it was decided that, as the men had not yet prepared the circular mound, the Kadja-wallung should be at once proceeded with. This was settled at a meeting of the old men at their council-place, about a quarter of a mile from the general camp. The preliminary ceremonial receptions of the several contingents had been held as they came in, although they could not have been done fully according to the usual rule, in the absence of a proper ring. In my case, although my party had not met me as arranged, there was the ceremonial visit to the several huts, starting from council-place, the Wirri-wirri-than. The messenger who had been entrusted with my bull-roarer