Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/627

IX approach. When the camp of the people they are sent to is found, they sneak round near to it and paint themselves; then when night comes they approach within hearing of the camp, and one of them strikes two boomerangs together. The people in the camp know at once what it means, and answer the signal by a shout something like our Hurrah. The old men go out and make a fire at a convenient place, generally close to a scrub, for these blacks usually camp close to a scrub, if one is near.

The messengers, seeing this, come up to them and stand in a row in perfect silence before the old men, who are at the opposite side of the fire. After about a quarter of an hour one of the old men puts the established question, "You have brought the Murang?" The answer is "Yes"; then, "Who has seen it?" The principal messenger then gives the name of the man who has seen the vision, for instance "Bunda," also giving the name which he had received at the Dora. Then he is questioned as to where the Dora is to be held, who are coming to it, and so on. After this the conversation becomes easier and less ceremonious.

The messengers do not camp with the people to whom they are sent, but at some place near by, which has been pointed out to them, and always at that side of the encampment which is towards their own country.

Meanwhile other parties of messengers are carrying the Dora to the other divisions of the tribe, and when they have delivered their messages they return home. During this time the people at headquarters have been commencing the Dora by holding the preliminary ceremonies.

At daylight they are all roused up, and the men turn out duly painted and armed, grouping themselves at the entrance to the ring, which is from fifteen to twenty feet wide. They all stand there, facing towards the interior of the ring. One man then commences to run round it, and the others follow him, till they return to the part from which they started, where they now stand facing the path, in the attitude of attack, and three times shout a defiance.

Then another man runs into the ring and the performance