302 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



ments — shape, and the finding of canoe alongside, this crannog 

 differs in no way from other well-known ones in Ireland and else- 

 where ; but in two respects it is absolutely unique : (1) as was 

 stated above, in being situated on the shores of a tidal river ; and 

 (2) in the fact that, so far at any rate, none but implements of flint 

 and bone have been discovered. This would throw its occupation 

 back at least to the Neolithic period, whereas crannogs are usually 

 associated with the Bronze Age, e.g., the British lake village at 

 Glastonbury yielded beautiful specimens of bronze fibulae and other 

 articles. Details as to further finds will, therefore, be eagerly 

 awaited by archaeologists. 



Australian Initiation Ceremonies 



Light is gradually being let into the remarkable ceremonies of 

 initiation that the young Australian has to pass through before he 

 is admitted to the secrets of the tribe and regarded as a full member 

 of it. Much has been published by the Horn Expedition, and by 

 a recent Government publication, but Professor Baldwin Spencer and 

 Mr F. J. Gillen have now given us the full details of these interest- 

 ing ceremonies as performed by the Arunta tribe of Central Australia. 

 Mr Gillen is a Sub-Protector of the aborigines, and so has special 

 opportunities of observing, and much of what was glossed over by 

 the earlier observers is now carefully related and explained. Ex- 

 cepting, perhaps, one tribe, the Wotjo-balluk of the Wimmera 

 district, Victoria, every Australian native has to undergo these 

 ceremonies. In the case of the tribes inhabiting the east and 

 south-eastern coastal districts of the continent, the ceremonies 

 appear to be entirely distinct from those of the tribes of the central 

 area, amongst whom they are very elaborate and spread over a long 

 series of years, the first taking place at about the age of ten or 

 twelve, whilst the final and most impressive one is not passed 

 through until the black fellow has reached the age of at least 

 twenty-five or even thirty. The ceremonies described in the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. x. part 2, are four in 

 number, and are (1) the Enchlchlchika and Alklrakiwuma, or 

 painting and throwing the boy up ; (2) Lartna or circumcision ; (3) 

 Ariltha or subincision ; and (4) Engwurra or fire ceremony. One of 

 the most noticeable features of the Arunta ceremonies is the absence 

 of the knocking out of the teeth, but no doubt to-day much of the 

 ceremony in various tribes has lost its old significance, and degener- 

 ated or developed along different lines as the tribes separated from 

 their original common centre. 



The Australian aborigines also form the subject of a paper by 

 Mr Oliphant Smeaton this month in the Westminster Review, who 

 deals with their curious legends. 



