Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/239

Rh male instincts appear in the boy. There are certain rites connected with this moment of his life and known as the ceremonies of the initiation into manhood. The initiation changes its character during the evolution of the human society. The culture is higher, the rite is less savage and bloody. In the highest stage the initiation has nothing but religious purposes: it is a covenant with the tribal god and has lost its sanguinary features. But the aspect is a very different one in the lowest degree of culture, i. e., among the Australian blacks. The ceremony of manhood is here partially a sort of school: the candidates are carefully instructed by the old men in their traditions, in the very exact laws of consanguinity. But the character of the rites which accompany the ceremony is terribly cruel. The severity passes all limits. In all parts of the continent those to be initiated endure most rough treatment. "During the celebration of the rites the youth suffered severely, and he had sympathy from none. When the youth has been led to a suitable place, his hair is cut off with sharp chips of quartzite, the head is then daubed with clay. ... To complete the picture he is immediately invested with a garment of strips of opossum skins, strings of opossum fur, and the like, which serves to cover his middle only, and his body is daubed with clay, mud, charcoal and filth of every kind. Though this ceremony is performed generally in the winter season, when the weather is very cold, the youth is not permitted to cover himself with a rug. He carries a basket under his arm, containing moist clay, charcoal powder and filth. In this state he wanders through the encampments, day and night. He gathers filth as he goes. No one speaks to him, no one molests him, all seem to fear him. When he sees anyone come out of a miam he casts filth at him, but he may not intrude himself into any miam. The women and children scream when they see him and rush to their miams for shelter." But in the case of that narration, the initiation, I believe, is a little changed, under the influence of the conditions which have been created in Australia with the white man. In most cases the ceremony is more cruel, and the separation of the youth from the community is more