Page:Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales.djvu/17

Rh When the headmen consider that the novices have gone through a sufficient course of instruction and discipline in the bush, a number of men, called the Beegay who have arrived at the women's camp since the boys were taken away, are despatched to liberate them. The Beegay start away from the main camp, and proceed to a waterhole in the bush which has been decided upon by the headmen as the place where the kooringal and guardians are to wash the black paint off their bodies. At this water-hole the Beegay leave their personal effects in charge of a few of their own men, and go into the bush in search of the kooringal and novices.

On the day which has been arranged to meet the Beegay, the Kooringal, guardians, and boys start out and carry all their things with them, as if shifting camp. When they reach the appointed place, which is in a piece of open country, their swags are laid down and a fire lit, at which the old men remain. The boys are then taken away on the pretence of accompanying the men hunting, and one or more of the Kooringal go ahead unseen by the boys, in order to see where the Beegay are. The boys, Wundhamurrin, are placed sitting in a row on the ground with their heads down and their backs towards the direction from which the Beagay are to approach. The Kooringal are standing in a row behind the boys. The guardians then tell them to listen, that Dhurramoolan is coming to burn them. The Beegay, painted with white stripes, are by this time quite near, carrying in the right hand a boomerang and in the left a smoking stick. One of them raises a low, continuous whistle, on hearing which the guardians tell the boys to get up and run back to the place where they left their swags, looking only at the ground in front of them. The boys then run as hard as they can in front with the guardians, until the temporary camp is reached, when the boys fall face downwards on rugs ready spread for them. The whistling of the Beegay has been heard close behind them all the way. As soon as the boys lie down, the old men who remain there say, "We will now give you a drink before you are burnt." After this, some of the men will clap their hands, while others take fire-sticks and touch the boys on the legs, to make them believe that Dhurramoolan is commencing to burn them. The Kooringal say, "Don't be in a hurry to burn the boys! Go away!"

During this time the Beegay are renewing the fire-sticks, in order that they may make a good smoke. Then the boys are helped to their feet, and are placed standing in a row, and the Kooringal are standing in a semicircle behind them. The boys' faces are now turned towards the Beegay, who are swaying their smoky sticks, and the guardians say, "There they are; they have a big fire over there," pointing in a certain direction. The Beegay then run up towards the boys, dancing and shouting, and swaying their smoky sticks and boomerangs. The guardians then turn the boys' backs towards the Beegay, who come up and pass along the row of boys, each man catching the back hair of each boy in succession, and pulling his head up straight. A Dhilbai Beegay would shake the hair of a Kubbi or Murri boy heartily, but would only lightly shake the back hair of a Kumbo or Ippai: the Kupathin men would show a similar preference for the boys belonging to their own class. This pulling of the back hair is done for the purpose of freeing the novices from the stooping position in which they have had to walk during the time they have been out with the Kooringal. After this the Beegay retire several yards, shouting as before, the boys remaining with their backs towards them.