Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/666

640 referred to the belief inculcated as to the existence of a great supernatural anthropomorphic Being, by whom the ceremonies were first instituted, and who still communicates with mankind through the medicine-men, his servants.

All this is more or less clearly shown in the ceremonies in Victoria and New South Wales, but less so in those of Queensland, where the food rules, for instance, seem to be made with the object of providing a plentiful and superior supply of food for the old men, and not, as in the before-mentioned tribes, to inculcate discipline, under which the novices are placed. Yet they also act in the same direction in making the participation in the better class of food dependent on age. Whether the rule of the Queensland tribes, or of those of New South Wales and Victoria, is the older one, is a difficult question to answer. In my opinion the former is probably the older, for it seems to be most likely that where the old men have the power to do so, they will impose rules which favour themselves, leaving the disciplinary rule to be the secondary object.

The universality of the practice that the guardians of the novice are of the relation to him of sister's husband, or wife's brother, is clearly connected with the almost universal practice of betrothal, and exchange of sister for sister, in marriage. As, moreover, the boy is initiated by the men of the intermarrying moiety of the tribe other than his own, those men of the group from which his future wife must come are naturally suggested as his guardians and preceptors in the ceremonies. Their selection would be acceptable to both moieties, that to which the novice belongs, and that from which his wife must come. As, moreover, the relation of Kabo, to use the Yuin term of relationship, is not merely an individual, but a group of men, the arrangement would have the strength of numbers, and a strong kindred behind it. Thus the novice, who is taken from the protection of his own kindred during the ceremonies, is placed in that of the kindred of his future wife, whose interest it is that no harm shall come to him.

One of the causes which act strongly in producing