Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/647

IX their faces toward the camp, the Krauun being in another row behind them, and behind them again were the mothers. It was now strongly impressed upon the boys by the Bullawang in charge of them that, when the men returned, and offered rods to them, or threw rods on them, they were on no account to touch them, but must let them fall unheeded to the ground, otherwise the Jeraeil would have to be recommenced from the beginning. The reason of this caution is that the rods which are offered to the boys are afterwards gathered up by the women, and this would be unlawful for them to do if any of the Tutnurring had touched them with their hands. From the commencement of the Jeraeil, there is an increasing separation of the Tutnurring from the women, until they are mutually tabooed after the "sleeping" ceremony. For either then to touch the other would be something very like pollution, and would, as the Kurnai believe, be followed by serious bodily illness to one or both.

After a short time of waiting, we heard in the distance a curious rattling sound accompanying the words "Ya! Wa! Ya! Wa!" At intervals there was a pause, followed by .shouts of "Yeh!" The men came in view, led by the old Headman, slowly marching in line. Each man held a bundle of thin rods, called Teddeleng, in each hand, which he struck together to the words "Ya! Wa!" Several men carried other bundles slung round their necks to supply the women and the Krauun who join in this ceremony. Having marched round the two rows of Tutnurring and Krauun, they then passed between the two rows and encircled the boys, thus severing them finally from the Krauun, and from their mothers. As they halted, each presented his bundle to one of the boys, and then proceeded to launch the rods one by one into the air over them, so that a continual shower fell on the Tutnurring, and thence to the ground, where they were carefully collected by the Krauun.

This part of the ceremony marks, as I have said, the separation of the boys from the women from this time forward, until the novice has been readmitted by the old