Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/586

560 Kabos, is his Budjan, that is his totem name. These names are not much used, and a person does not know much of the Budjans of others. It is the personal name which is used, not the Budjan. The personal name is a tribal one given to an individual in childhood, and the use of the totem name is avoided, lest an enemy might get hold of it and do him an injury by evil magic. In this there is a difference between the Yuin and other tribes, in which the totem name is used, and the personal name strictly kept secret. The rule is that during the period of probation the novice is absolutely prohibited from holding any communication with a woman, even his own mother. He must not even look at one, and this prohibition extends to the emu, for the emu is Ngalalbal, the mother of Daramulun.

The food restrictions in connection with these ceremonies are that the Gumbang-ira (raw-tooth novice) may not eat any of the following: emu, because it is Ngalalbal; any animal, e.g. the wombat, which burrows in the ground, and therefore reminds of the foot-holes; such creatures as have very prominent teeth, such as the kangaroo, because they remind of the tooth itself; any animal that climbs to the tree-tops, like the koala, because it is then near to Daramulun; any bird that swims, because it reminds of the final washing ceremony. Other food forbidden is spiny ant-eater, common opossum, lace-lizard, snakes, eels, perch, and others.

Thus the young man during his probation is placed in an artificial state of scarcity as to food, although perhaps surrounded by plenty. Included in the forbidden is the Budjan of the novice, although this rule is becoming more and more disregarded in the younger generations.

The novices were told that if they eat any of the forbidden animals, the Joïa belonging to it would get into them and kill them. But not only is there an immaterial Joïa which acts magically, but also a special magical substance which belongs to each such animal. In fact, these magical substances are some of the Joïas which the medicine-men exhibit at the Kuringal. As each Gommera has a totem name, his Budjan and the magical substance belonging to it are his special Joïas.