Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/665

IX not to interfere with the women of the tribe, particularly those who are related to them, nor to injure their kindred, in its widest sense, by means of evil magic. Before the novice is permitted to take his place in the community, marry, and join in its councils, he must possess those qualifications which will enable him to act for the common welfare.

As a hunter he is sent into the bush to find his own living, often for several months, and, under the prohibitions as to certain food animals which arc imposed upon him, he is practically placed in a state of privation, while being possibly surrounded by plentiful but forbidden food.

The qualifications of the young men are tested in some tribes, especially those of Southern Queensland, by a ceremonial combat in which they take part.

The extraordinary restrictive powers of the food rules, and the powerful effect of the teaching at the ceremonies, has been shown in cases known to me by the serious and even fatal effects, produced by what one must call conscience, in novices who had broken the rules and eaten of forbidden food.

All those who have had to do with the native race in its primitive state will agree with me that there are men in the tribes who have tried to live up to the standard of tribal morality, and who were faithful friends and true to their word; in fact men for whom, although savages, one must feel a kindly respect. Such men are not to be found in the later generation, which has grown up under our civilisation, and is rapidly being exterminated by it.

In the ceremonies mentioned, with few exceptions, there is a similar mode of assembling the meeting for initiation, the making of a circular earthen mound, the removal of the boys from their mothers' control, the knocking out of the tooth, the investment in some tribes of the novice with a man's attire, the formation of a new camp by the women, and the showing of the boy to his mother, with the severance of her control over him by a formal act, and finally the period of probation under severe conditions. I have