Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/562

536 The bull-roarer was now sounded in the distance and the procession, obeying its call, moved again up the mountain.

The fifth halt was merely a burlesque of a number of women sitting on the ground and beating on their rolled -up rugs as they sang a song. The sixth halt was near the summit of the mountain, and a number of the men crouched on the ground covered with grass representing kangaroo rats. As the boys came up, these men started to their feet and danced, forming a circle, in which Yibai-malian exhibited his magical powers. The name of the animal was the word sung here.

From this place the ground fell a little, so as to lead by a gentle slope of about a quarter of a mile into a small grassy depression lying back from the range, and falling slightly to the south. Here we halted, the bundles were laid down or hung on the trees, and the first of the minor stages was completed. The procession from the camp to this place in the mountain represents the cleared path from the circle to the little Bunan. The various stages to be now described represent some of the stages on the path, and the little Bunan is represented, partly by this grassy depression and partly by a small grassy glen below it. This latter was connected with the grassy depression above it by a little water channel which had cut its way down a steep rocky slope and joined a small creek leading down to a valley where there was a fine pool of water. It then formed a stream, bordered by shrubs and tall sedges, and flowing through a series of small basin-like hollows, ultimately ran into a lake on the sea-shore.

On the way down from the summit to the place where we had halted the old men had bent down small saplings to form arches, under which the novices had to pass. Some of them were so low that the boys had to crawl under them. These arches are made to impress obedience on the boys.

The forest was not very dense, but the trees were high, and the whole was secluded by a dense growth of wattles, which covered the upper slopes of the mountain-top over which we had come.

Here we made our camp, each contingent being on that