Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/697

X till the men release them four or five months later. Till then they live and sleep separately from the camp, and speak in whispers. The releasing of the Wilyalkinyis consists merely in tearing the string from their necks, and covering them with blood, in the same manner as at the earlier ceremony. After that they are admissible to all the privileges of grown men. The women and children, as has been already said, are not permitted to see any of the above ceremonies, and are camped on these occasions out of sight of the men. If their business requires them, in fetching water, wood, or anything else, to be in sight of where the men are, they must cover their heads with a skin rug and walk in a stooping posture. Any impertinent curiosity on their part is punishable with death, and it is said that instances have occurred in which this punishment has been inflicted.

I have quoted this account of the ceremonies of the Parnkalla for the reason that it gives a fairly full account of them, and also because it completes the view of these of the Lake Eyre tribes, to which the Parnkalla belong by their organisation and customs. The Wilyalkinyi ceremony is evidently the equivalent of the Wilyaru of the Dieri.

On the opposite side of Spencer Gulf to Port Lincoln there is the Narrang-ga tribe. It also practised circumcision, but not subincision, and therefore it belongs probably to the Banapa already mentioned.

When the boys became aware that they were likely to be wanted for that rite, they sometimes concealed themselves in the bush, but were hunted down. At the ceremony the boy is caused to drink blood from his own arm. In the actual rite one of the old men places his hands over the boy's eyes, and after the prepuce is cut off, it is buried at the place of initiation. For about twelve months the young man is obliged to carry with him a fire-stick, wherever he goes, and it is only after his return to the camp that he is allowed to marry. At the ceremonies no one speaks above a whisper.