Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/38

 xxviii INTRODUCTION. on the right side with his left hand, and with the right cuts gashes about an inch long, half an inch apart, and 3-16ths of an inch deep. The blood as it flows is wiped away with tufts of grass. Whilst the operation is proceeding, the mother and other female relations lament and mourn and lacerate their bodies with shells.* Sometimes the victims resist, and escape before the work is complete; but generally the girls are anxious to be marked, as the scars are supposed to increase their personal attractions. Amongst the Adelaide tribe, it is stated on the authority of the late Dr. Moorhouse, formerly Protector of Aborigines, that before a native can become a man he must pass through five different stages. The first is from his birth to his tenth year, when he is inducted into the second by being covered over with blood drawn from the arm of a man. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen the rite of circumcision introduces him into the third stage. The operation is performed with a sharp stone or shell, the youth being led away to some distance from the women and children, who are not allowed to be present. The operation is attended by strange ceremonies, too numerous to be described here, and after it is over the young lad is kept away from the presence of all females and fed upon a vegetable diet until he has quite recovered. His head is daubed over with grease and red ochre, and encircled with a bandage ornamented with tufts of feathers. The fourth stage is entered upon at the age of twenty, when his back, shoulders, arms, and breasts are tatooed. The fifth stage is not attained until he is becoming grey-headed. All of these rites are performed with much mystery, and women are carefully excluded from witnessing them. Amongst many of the tribes the ceremony of introducing a native into manhood is said to be accompanied with some horrible and disgusting practices. The funeral ceremonies differ in almost every tribe. Amongst the Adelaide blacks the body is at once wrapped up in the garments worn during life, and in a day or two placed upon a circular bier formed of the branches of trees. It is then carried upon
 * Eyre.