Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/311

 CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES. 233 of women. Each incision requires several cuts with, the blunt chips of quartz to make them deep enough, and is then carefully drawn apart; yet the poor fellows do not shrink, or utter a sound; but I have seen their friends so overcome by sympathy with their pain, that they made attempts to stop the cruel proceedings, which was of course not allowed by the other men. During the cutting, which is performed with astonishing expedition, as many of the men as can find room crowd around the youths, repeating in a subdued tone, but very rapidly, the following formula: 

This incantation, which is derived from their ancestors, is apparently void of any coherent sense; the object of its repetition, however, is to alleviate the pain of the young men, and to prevent dangerous consequences from the dreadful lacerations. After the incisions are completed on all the youths, they are allowed to stand up and open their eyes, and the first thing they behold is two men coming towards them, stamping, biting their beards, and swinging the witarna with such fury as if they intended to clash it against their heads, but upon approaching, they content themselves with placing the string of that instrument round their necks in succession. Several fires are also made to windward at this time, so that the smoke may be blown upon the young men. In commemoration of the ordeal gone through, the wilyalkinyis are presented with some badges, such as a new girdle round the waist, spun of human hair, a tight bandage round each upper arm, a string of opossum hair round the neck, the end of which descends clown the back, where it is fastened to the girdle, a bunch of green leaves over the pubes, and at last their faces, arms and breasts are painted black. In conclusion, all the men crowd once more round them, each endeavouring to give them some good advice for the proper regulation of their future conduct; the main topics I understood to be these: to abstain from quarrelling and fighting, to forbear talking aloud, and to avoid the women. The