Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/767

XII him to grow big and strong. A peg called Gumbart is left in until the wound is healed.

The perforation in the septum of the nose in the Wurunjerri tribe was made when the child was about twelve years of age. It is called Ilbi-jerri. The old men performed the operation for the boys, and the old women for the girls, and it was in the winter -time that this was done. The parents would say to the child, "You must get ready your bone; make it nice and sharp, so that a hole can be made in your nose," After the bone had been pushed through the nose and left there, the child scraped a small hole in the ground, placed in it some stones heated in the fire, covered it with some earth, and poured water on it. It then held its head, covered with an opossum skin rug, over the steam until the peg became loose, and could be turned round. It did this every night and morning till the place was healed.

The perforation was not made by the Yuin till the boy had been initiated, and was permitted to return to the camp from his probation in the bush. The nose-hole is called Guraw, and the nose-peg Kurt-bagur.

At Port Stephens the blacks used to pin their blankets across their chests with the bone nose-peg. When not in use it was kept in the nose.

In the Turrbal tribe the perforation was made with the point of a spear.

Formerly the Chepara bored the septum of the nose with a pointed kangaroo bone, the perforation being kept open by a rounded piece of wood, which was frequently turned round in the hole, water being allowed to trickle through. This practice has died out now, quite old men being seen without the nose bored. These are only a few instances of a very wide Australian practice.

The Kurnai in their primitive state usually went about without any covering. But they made what are now called "opossum rugs." These were made of the dried pelts of