Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/600

574 "This part of the ceremony being over, the Port Stephens blacks, accompanied by the Bumbats, ran up the trees like monkeys, and breaking off small branches, threw them down on the ground, where they were eagerly scrambled for by the women, who put them in their nets. The up-country blacks took no part in the branch-breaking, and one of them told me that they never did that sort of thing in his part of the country. This concluded the first part of the ceremony, and the women were not allowed to see the next part. They were made to lie down and were covered with blankets and bark, and a blackfellow was placed over them as a guard, waddy in hand. At this stage of the proceedings some of the up-country blacks objected to my being present with a gun, for I had a small one with me. One of our blacks asked me to give it up, and it would be all right, but I did not do so and went away."

The following account relates to the ceremonies of the tribe which occupied the country about Dungog, and which appears to be part of the great group to which the Gringai belong. I follow my informant's words in describing what he saw, and also ascertained, about the ceremonies. The juvenile males of this tribe were, from the age of about twelve to eighteen, allowed to accompany their parents and friends in hunting excursions, and assisted in the incidental fagging necessary about the camps, and then in the course of time were thoroughly disciplined and properly trained. When they are considered ready to be made full members of the tribe, the elders hold a convention, and decide on a Bumbat being held, generally when there are three or four youths to be initiated.

Messengers are despatched to summon the tribes far and near; and on their return, full preparations are made for the celebration, a place being selected and a day appointed. As part of the ceremonies, the aspirants undergo the ordeal of having an upper front tooth either bitten or knocked out