Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/607

IX they are kept in a crouching position, and with their heads covered and their eyes cast down.

The various ceremonial performances, which are held both in the daytime and at night, are arranged while the Kippers have their heads covered; and when told to look round they are expected to show surprise, which no doubt they feel.

In the middle of the clear space in which the ceremonies take place, a small tree is taken up and placed with its roots in the air, and around it saplings, peeled of their bark, are placed, the whole being tied together with strips of bark, thus making a sort of small enclosure. The saplings are painted with ochre. On this structure one of the medicine-men stands with a cord hanging out of his mouth. He is said to represent a supernatural being called Maamba. The medicine-men are called Bujerum, and the one just spoken of is the principal one of the tribe, and is believed to ascend at night to the sky to see Maamba about the welfare of the tribes-people. During this part of the ceremonies the initiated men sit round the upturned tree and chant a song in low tones, which is only used at this time, and which it is forbidden for the women to hear. A woman who was found to have listened to this song would be killed.

My valued correspondent, Mr. Tom Petrie, tells me that he knows of this ceremony as being used by tribes beyond the Turrbal, and he confirms the statement that women who heard this low chant were killed.

At one part of the ceremonies the men, while the Kippers are lying down, make a long and narrow fire, on one side of which they sit, while the boys, who have been roused up, sit on the other in a sleepy state. The men pretend that it is stormy, and that it rains, making noises to represent the wind. Then a number of the men hop about and croak like frogs. Finally the men all dance and then extinguish the fire by jumping on it with their feet. In the darkness the Kippers are led back to their camp.

Among the pantomimic representations by the men are