Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/592

566 very early days before Gippsland was settled. He was told that the women and children might not see it.

The best, indeed the only account which I have seen of this tribe is that of Mr. Richard Helms, which I quote from to make my remarks more complete. He says as follows:—

"At about fourteen to sixteen years the young man was made Kurrong by knocking out one of his front teeth. This removed him from the care of his mother and the influence of the women, and, so to say, raised him from boyhood to youth. At eighteen to twenty, when his beard had started to develop properly, he was made Wahu. All the hair of his head was singed off gradually, the women being excluded. When the hair was removed, the men ran up and waved green boughs over his head. After this the men would run some way, returning swinging the boughs, with a swishing sound, in a certain direction, mentioning at the same time the name of the district towards which they were pointing. This was repeated three times for each of the various directions they might point to. Each name mentioned was preceded by the emphasised exclamation of Wau! wau!—for instance, Wau! wau! Tumut! If the Wau was followed by an exclamation or malediction, it meant that the Wahu might go to the one as a friend; or that in the other direction lived tribes with whom he would have to carry on the hereditary feud. He was now considered to have been raised to the position of a warrior."

As soon as the initiation was completed the women were again admitted to the presence of the men, and dancing and corrobborees were held for the benefit of the visitors present on these occasions.

A newly-made Wahu might choose any woman of the tribe he liked, his blood relations excepted, for the night. But such a privilege was for the night only.

According to the Yuin, the Kuringal extended up the coast northwards as far as the Hunter River, and therefore