Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/660

634 and indeed when in poor country the food rules are soon relaxed, as, for instance, at Lake Tyers, where flesh food is somewhat scarce. In what manner the Tutnurring become free to eat the flesh of the "old man kangaroo" I shall presently show.

The next stage after "Showing the Grandfather" is called "Giving the Tutnurring some Frogs." This is a cryptic way of referring, under the name of "Frogs," which are swamp-dwellers, to the Dura, a food plant which grows abundantly in the lagoons and swamps of Gippsland. In this ceremony the women again take a prominent part. But the novices are now with the men, and not, as at first, together with the Krauun, under the direction of their mothers.

In preparation of this ceremony the women have gathered some of the rhizomes of the Dura, and baked them in the ashes as usual when preparing them for food. The Tutnurring having been painted by their guardians, each one with a band of red ochre down each side of the nose, were told to "come and eat some frogs." They were taken to the open space in the Jeraeil ground, and there placed in a row, the Bullawangs and other men being grouped behind them, holding branches in their hands. The women then came from the main camp, bringing with them the Krauun, whom they placed in a row facing the novices, but about a hundred and fifty yards distant from them. The mothers and the other women stood behind. Each Krauun held in her hands a pole about ten feet long, at the end of which was tied a bunch of the cooked rhizomes of the Dura. They shouted, "Come here, and we will give you your food." Each novice had been placed fronting his Krauun, and being instructed what to do, ran forward, seized the Dura, and throwing it down on the ground, ran back to the Jeraeil camp at the top of his speed. The men, who had raised shouts of "Huh!" and rustled their boughs, opened their ranks to let the Tutnurring through, and then followed them, shouting, to the camp. One of the Bullawangs, who had been told off for the purpose, gathered up the Dura, and