Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/648

622 men into the community; but, even then, the young man does not stand on his former footing. He no longer lives in the same camp with his parents and sisters, but in the camp of the Brewit, or young unmarried men. So strict is the rule as to the rods that, had a Tutnurring touched one of them, the Kranun would have dropped all those they had collected, and would have returned to the camp with all the women present. The Jeraeil would have had to be recommenced from the beginning, and the boy who had caused this serious break in the ceremonies would have been severely punished. Probably in the olden-times he would have been speared.

The Krauun, having collected the rods, reformed their line behind the motionless Tutnurring, and the Bullawangs formed a third line facing them. There were three of these to each boy. The Bullawang is the Tutnurring's "own," or "tribal," mother's brother's son, and belongs to that local group of the tribe with which the Tutnurring's father's group intermarried. These Bullawangs had been selected after careful consideration, the old women taking a prominent part in the genealogical discussion which occurred; for, owing to the diminution of the tribe, it was necessary to trace out "tribal relations," as there were not enough "own relations" to supply the required number of Bullawangs to each boy. I heard the old Gweraeil-Rukut ask two of the boys which part their "mother's father" belonged to; and it was by this knowledge of the locality and of the individual that the particular Bullawang was allotted.

With loud shouts of "Huh!" and the rustling of bunches of leaves, each group of three Bullawangs raised their boy several times high in the air, he extending his arms towards the sky as far as possible. The women now raised and shook their leaf- topped sticks, and the men their handfuls of leaves, over the boys. Immediately following this, the Bullawangs were raised into the air,