Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/602

576 and all the men rushed out of the ring and seemed to be engaged in a fearful fight, spears and boomerangs flying about in hundreds. This, he was told, was the end, but to me it seems clear that was but the beginning of the ceremonies, being the time when the contingents have arrived, and before the final part when the boys who are to be initiated are taken from their mothers.

I have met with a notice of these ceremonies in Breton's work, dating back to 1830, and I extract it to make more complete the fragmentary account which I have been able to piece together of the ceremonies of initiation of the tribes of the Hunter River country, which include the blacks of Port Stephens; and to the same great group those of Port Macquarie may be added.

Breton says: "There is a remarkable ceremony performed at Port Macquarie. It is called Kabbarah. The summit of a low hill is chosen for the scene of this singular rite. The surface is carefully cleaned from grass, and the bark of any trees that may be near is carved into rude representations of different animals. After this, a fire is lighted in the centre, and the youth who is to be initiated is held by the heels, while the natives dance round him uttering loud shouts. A man called the Cradji, or 'doctor,' then bites out the upper front tooth on the left side; or, if he fails, it is knocked out. After the extraction of the tooth the youth is supposed to have arrived at the age of manhood, and is then at liberty to steal a woman from another tribe. No female is permitted to be present at the celebration of the rites, nor may she approach within several hundred yards of the spot, and any attempt on the part of a woman to witness the ceremony would be punished by instant death. The Kabbarah always includes several tribes, some of whom come from a distance of some hundreds of miles, and probably much farther. As a preliminary to the meeting, two messengers are despatched