Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/622

596 Several tribes assembled at these ceremonies, and the men of one tribe initiated the boys of the other. They are ordered not to speak on pain of death, and in the old times this penalty was certainly inflicted. During the night the boys were made to lie down in a circle, surrounded by boughs, and each boy slept with his head on the hip of the next one. During the day they sat with opossum rugs over their heads. To ask for anything was strictly forbidden. If they desired to scratch themselves, they had to do it with a stick.

Armed sentries were placed over them prepared to spear any boy who might be tempted to look up or laugh. The old men tried the self-control of the boys by telling them that their mothers were calling them, or by working upon superstitious beliefs or fears.

The camp where the boys were kept by day was surrounded by a circle of boughs. At night they were taken to another camp about two hundred yards away. All the ceremonies were conducted during the night. Trees about the place had rude figures cut into the bark.

Two bull-roarers were used in the ceremonies; one, the larger of the two, was called Bugerum, the other was called Wobblekum, and was about four inches long by an inch wide, and perforated. The Bugerum made a louder and deeper-sounding roar.

The unearthly sounds made by the bull-roarers were believed by the women and children to be made by the medicine-men when swallowing the novices during the ceremonies, and a woman who attempted to spy out the ceremonies would have been certainly killed.

The boys were taught to respect the old men, and to obey all the teachings imparted to them at the ceremonies, and these were enforced by the magical arts which the medicine-men exhibited thereat. The Kurbin-aii lasted for a long time; never less than three weeks, and often much longer.

The boys after initiation were called Kippur, which has now passed among white people as a name for any young blackfellow.