Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/702

676 him for about three weeks; and then, selecting a tree which stands with its roots in a water-hole, he cuts a hole in the bark and conceals them therein.

I am informed that, during the ceremonies, he drinks the blood from the arm of one of the old men, and is supposed thereby to be infused with a manly spirit, and to lay aside boyish things.

After the ceremonies, he is prohibited from eating animal food, until the sore caused by knocking out the tooth is healed.

Two bull-roarers are used in these ceremonies. The larger of the two is called Bungumbelli, and is the charge of the medicine-man of the tribe. A notch is made on it for each ceremony at which it is used. The smaller one is called Purtali and is used not only at the ceremonies, but also in cases of sickness by the medicine-men as a sort of exorcism. The youth after the initiation receives presents from the men to give him a start in life, such as rugs, weapons, and such like. He is then permitted to be present at the consultations of the men.

The principles which underlie the ceremonies of the western type are in some points the same as those of the eastern type. The youths are separated from the control of their mothers and from the companionship of their sisters, are usually taboo as to women during their novitiate, and are generally initiated by the men of the other moiety of the tribe.

The inculcation of obedience to the elders and observation of the tribal morality is common to both, but they are sharply distinguished by the rites of circumcision and subincision, and the practice of bleeding at the Wilyaru and similar ceremonies.

There is no direct evidence to show from whence these ceremonies have been derived, but the legends suggest a line of inter-tribal communication from the north to the south, and I incline to the belief that a northern origin will ultimately be assigned to these ceremonies. Whether they overlie older ceremonies of the eastern type or the reverse,