Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/584

558 having been, by stress of circumstances, condensed into about one-third of the time usually taken for them. The three boys had been made men, probationers certainly, but ranking with the men, and for ever separated from the control of their mothers and the companionship of their sisters.

All the boys who are made men at the same time are in the relation of Mudthi. All who have had a tooth knocked out are Gumbang-ira, that is, "Raw-tooth."

When we reached the summit of a rocky spur which jutted out from the mountain, we overlooked the distant river valley. Then, about half a mile farther on, we halted on a small peak above a steep descent, and here the young men were divested of their blankets and carefully painted with yellow ochre by their Kabos in lines and dots. Three bands were drawn across the face, and the legs from the knee down were wholly covered with ochre. The belt of manhood was carefully wound round the waist, and the two Burrain were hung thereto, before and behind. The head-bands and the arm-bands completed their costume.

The two elder boys took it all with the greatest equanimity, but the younger one, who had shown an utterly unmoved demeanour, except when his tooth was being knocked out, through all the ceremonies of nearly thirty hours, was now scarcely able to contain himself, as he stood and admired his costume. His face was radiant as he looked down first on one side and then on the other.

This having been done, we were ready to start, but first of all a signal was made to learn whether the women were ready to receive us. This was done by one of the men uttering a shrill cry three times like "Trr, trr, trr," and then all joining in a great shout of "Yau! yau! yau!" This was repeated three times with intervals of listening, until at length a shrill answering signal of the same kind came up from the distant forest below.

We now descended the remaining part of the mountain; and at its foot, when about a quarter of a mile from the new camp, we halted, and, the bundles being put down, the men broke off boughs or young trees, and formed a close group bearing them, within which were the Kabos, one of