Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/564

538 not satisfied with the sound of mine, he set to and made another from a piece of the wood of a native cherry-tree which grew near by. While he was doing this, I went with my messenger to a pile of rocks near at hand, where he had secreted the Dieri bull-roarer, and set him to swing it vigorously. Instantly, when the sound was heard, all the men started to their feet, the Kabos roused their boys up with a shout of "Huh! Yakai!" which may be rendered "Hallo! Oh, dear!" The roaring of the Mudthi represents the muttering of thunder, and the thunder is the voice of Daramulun, and therefore its sound is of the most sacred character. Umbara once said to me, "Thunder is the voice of him (pointing upwards to the sky) calling on the rain to fall and make everything grow up new."

All the men now went to their camps and had their dinners, but the boys had only a small quantity of tea and a piece of bread each, this being the commencement of short commons for them during their novitiate.

The old men being ready, we went down a cattle-track to the lower glen, where a place was chosen and a space cleared for the tooth ceremony. All the bushes were chopped up, the stones gathered, and even the grass plucked up by the roots—in fact, everything cleared from it for a space of about twenty-five feet square. In a line along one side three pairs of holes were dug, about a foot in depth, in which the novices were to stand. A great stringy-bark tree was close to the northern side, and on this the Bega Gommera cut in relief the figure of a man of life-size in the attitude of dancing. This represented Daramulun, whose ceremonies they are, and who, as is taught to the novices, is cognisant of all the Kuringal proceedings.

While some of the old men were making these preparations, other men prepared sheets of stringy bark for the dresses of the performers in the next ceremony. These dresses were prepared by cutting the bark of the tree through all round the bole in two places about three feet apart. The outer bark is then chipped off and the inner bark beaten with the back of the tomahawk before being separated