Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/593

IX included the now extinct Port Jackson tribe. Collins, in his work, An Account of the English Colony of New South Wales, gives particulars of the ceremony of initiation, which he saw, at least in great part, in the year 1796, and which was called, by the native tribes which inhabited Port Jackson, Yoolahng, from the cleared space in which the ceremonies were held. The people who assembled at the Yoolahng were apparently not only the Geawe-gal of the southern shores of Botany Bay, and the Cam-mer-ray-gal, who lived on the north shore of Port Jackson, but also "wood-natives and many strangers." The place selected for the Yoolahng was Farm Cove, where the ceremonial ground had been prepared. It was of an oval figure, twenty-seven feet by eighteen.

The Cam-mer-ray-gal stood at one end; the boys to be initiated, with their friends, at the other. The Cam-mer-ray-gal advanced from their end of the Yoolahng with a shout peculiar to the occasion, and the clattering of shields and spears, and raised a dust with their feet that nearly obscured the objects around them. One of them stepped forward, and, seizing one of the boys, placed him in the middle of his party. Fifteen boys were thus taken and placed at the upper end of the Yoolahng, where they sat, each holding down his head, his hands clasped and his legs crossed under him. In this manner they were to remain all night, and until the ceremonies were ended they were not to look up or take any refreshment whatever.

One of the Carrahdis then suddenly fell on the ground, a crowd of natives dancing round him and singing vociferously, until he produced a bone which was to be used in the ensuing ceremony. Another then went through the same ceremony, producing another bone, the boys being assured that the ensuing operation would be attended with little pain, and that the more the Carrahdis suffered, the less would be felt by them.

It being now perfectly dark. Colonel Collins left, with an invitation to return early in the morning.

On the next morning he found the Cam-mer-ray-gal camped by themselves, and the boys lying also by