Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/661

IX brought it to the Jeraeil ground, where it was divided, and eaten by all present. The women returned to their camp.

"Seeing the Ghosts."—At this stage the Tutnurring are told to come and see the Mrart (ghosts). For this ceremony it is necessary to procure a large "old-man kangaroo." At the Jeraeil which I am describing, two days were fruitlessly spent by almost all the men ranging over miles of country in search of the wanted Brangula jira. I found out afterwards that all the "old men" had been shot for their skins by a party of kangaroo hunters (white men) who had been encamped for some time at a place near by. The Jeraeil therefore came to a standstill, until one genius suggested that a male wallaby should be substituted. The old men having approved, the difficulty was got over. This Brangula, having been shot and roasted, was cut up, and the pieces were laid on the top of a large fallen tree at a little distance from, but within hearing of, the camp, where the novices were still under the careful tuition of their guardians. When all was prepared, the men began to shout, as if driving game, to beat the logs and tree-stems with clubs and tomahawk-heads, and in fact to represent a "kangaroo drive." The Tutnurring being carefully shrouded in their blankets, were told to come and see where "the ghosts had caught a kangaroo." On reaching the spot where the men were still imitating the driving of game, the novices were placed in a row close to the log on which the game was displayed. The noise now ceased, and the Headman, holding his throwing-stick pointing to the sky, told them to look up; and their blankets being thrown off, he pointed successively three times to the sky, to the horizon, and to the meat on the log, saying, "Look there! Look there! Look there!"

The novices were now seated on the log, each one having a pile of meat beside him. The Headman gave some of this to them, and the rest was eaten up by the other men.