Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/640

614 remains quite naked, and is rubbed with red ochre, until his oldest Guritch brings him an opossum rug.

If, however, blood comes when the hair is plucked out, the youth is said to have "been too much with the women," and is painted white from the waist over the head, down the back to the belt on which he wears a Branjep, before and behind, and he is called Jibauk.

The Jupagalk adjoined the Jajaurung on the north-west side. In that tribe, when a boy was old enough to be made a man, two of his Ngierep (sister's husband) took him away for a time and kept him with them until he had been initiated. The boy was dressed in the full dress of a man, with a belt of opossum cord round his waist, a row of kangaroo teeth round his forehead, and a reed necklace. In front and behind a Branjep hung from his belt. Red ochre and grease was rubbed over him, and a ligature of kangaroo sinew tied round his upper fore-arm, from which the boys are called Ganitch, that is, "tied." The Ngierep kept the boy in their camp for two or three months, and did everything for him. When they went out hunting, one of them carried him on his shoulders. The boy was not allowed to do anything for himself. In one case of which I had some knowledge, the boy was Garchuka (white cockatoo), and his Ngierep was Wurant (black cockatoo). The boy was not allowed to eat the male of any animal.

The subjoined diagram shows the manner in which the



inmates of the camp of such a Ngierep slept round the fire at night.

1 is the Ngierep, 2 is the boy, 3 wife of the Ngierep, and 5 and 6 their children.