NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 167 



served for custom's sake. Others told us, and I am more and 

 more convinced that this is an essential of the raison d'etre of all 

 these initiation ceremonies, that they were hungry, and had to 

 prevent the younger men and boys from eating those food-stuffs 

 of which they (the old ones) were in want. The old men do their 

 best to carry out this idea by showing the younger generation 

 the influence they wield in executing certain performances, by 

 giving an air of uncanniness and mystery to the proceedings in 

 carrying them out in secret, and by making them believe that 

 any violation of the orders given concerning the eating of certain 

 things will be punished by the infliction of various diseases and 

 deformities. The food-stuffs which are here forbidden include 

 the wokai (Dioscorea sativa var. rotunda), gangga (Vitis acetosa), 

 barwan (a fruit), watan and banu (both of them roots), fresh- 

 water eels, a particular variety of turtle, a certain kind of honey, 

 etc. The novitiate must attend two whole ceremonies before 

 being allowed to partake of any of these until finally one of the 

 old men rubs each of these articles successively on his (the 

 novice's) chest. Should he. however, eat of the forbidden fruit 

 withiu the prescribed period, his face will become disfigured, his 

 nose rot away, etc. — one such example being shown me in proof. 

 Beyond being commanded what not to eat, the novice here 

 receives no instructions whatever concerning his sexual or social 

 relationships, 3 no moral or ethical precepts are inculcated, nor is 

 any form of education (in the ways of hunting, weapon-making, 

 etc.) imparted ; indeed, from what I learnt and saw, I should 

 judge that his education, such as it is, is greatly misguided and 

 retarded by attendance at the ceremony. When during the 

 dance connected with the Body-louse (PI. liv., fig. 1), the 

 actors hunted in the central performer's head and on his 

 genitalia, and ate or pretended to eat the vermin, I naturally 

 concluded that it was a lesson in cleanliness. When, in the 

 poisonous "Stone-fish" dance (PI lii., fig. 2) a performer 

 accidentally trod, or pretended to tread, on the dorsal fin and 

 yelled out with the pain, the first thought that struck me was 

 that this was a warning to the novices to take extra precautions 

 in the hunting of this particular animal. But I was wrong in 

 both these and similar conclusions, for after every form of enquiry, 

 direct and indirect, I was able to satisfy myself that throughout 

 all these series of performances, not one has any ethical or 

 educational significance — there is not indeed the slightest inten- 

 tion of pointing a moral to adorn a tale. So also on the Bloom- 



3 He may, however, receive such instructions on the Bloomfield River, 

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