Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/688

662 have plenty of light during the ceremonies, which commence at sunset. Meanwhile at every sunrise, and at intervals, all the men at the camp join in the Mindari song.

On the evening of the ceremony the young men are carefully dressed. The hair of the head is tied with cord so as to stand straight up, and tails of rats (Thilpa) are fastened to the top. Feathers of the owl and the emu are affixed to the forehead and the ears, and a large girdle (Yinka), made of human hair, is wound round the waist. The face is painted red and black.

The ceremonies commence by the men, women, and children shouting at the full force of their lungs for about ten minutes. Then the women go a little way from the camp, to dance by themselves, while the men proceed to a distance of about three hundred yards, to a piece of hard ground which has been neatly swept, and on which a ring has been marked. The ceremonies are opened by a little boy about four years of age, who is decked out with the down of the swan and the wild duck attached to his head, and with his face painted red and black. He dances into the ring, followed by the old men, and this dance continues for about ten minutes, when the boy ends it by running out of the ring.

All the young men then go through a number of evolutions, and this is continued till the sun rises, when the ceremony terminates and all retire to sleep during the day.

The reason for holding this ceremony is to enable all the tribes to meet and to amicably settle any disputes that may have occurred since the last Mindari.

Connected with initiation, there is the Kulpi rite, now known to anthropologists as subincision. At the secret council at which the circumcision ceremony is determined upon, the Headman and the heads of totems fix upon the youths who are to become Kulpi. Certain men are fixed