170 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN' MUSEUM. 



able in all cases except when expressing this rite, for which the 

 former term is exclusively used. Considering that at so com- 

 paratively short a distance removed as Princess Charlotte Bay 

 there are five or six different and progressive initiation ceremo- 

 nies, it is interesting to learn that here but one ceremony is 

 known and practised. It is not necessarily held every year, two 

 or three intervening perhaps, and the location is shifted on each 

 occasion. The exact time of year would appear to be immaterial, 

 though usually it is held after the wet season, messengers being 

 sent to neighbouring tribes telling them to assemble ; it is also 

 held independently of any particular phase of the moon. 



The age at which the novices are chosen to attend the ceremony 

 has nothing whatever to do with puberty ; anyone from an old 

 man with children to quite a young lad. The extreme ages of 

 those I myself observed must have been from twenty-two or 

 twent} r -three down to eight or nine. They wear no accoutre- 

 ments, neither are they painted (until the last days' proceedings), 

 nor is any new name applied to any of them individually, nor is 

 silence enforced throughout the whole ceremony. After the 

 performance the late novice is known as a ngumbal. 



The performers paint themselves all over with red, with white 

 streaks over and below the eyes, meeting on either side of the 

 face in a single line running down either side of the neck, and 

 hence either diverging along each shoulder and armor continuing 

 down over the chest to join below the navel, or else converging 

 into a single median band. On the head is worn the merrimbal, 

 the cockatoo top-knot feather head-dress, or when this is not 

 obtainable a small bunch or even a single feather may be stuck 

 into the hair. There is no special performer who is leader, 

 chorus-master, etc, all arrangements being made by the old men 

 collect i vely. 



The initial proceedings may be described as follows : — In the 

 morning the novices are seized by the hair of the head and led 

 away from the main camp by the men to a spot selected at some 

 considerable distance away, and left there in charge of a keeper 

 who accompanies them throughout the proceedings. This keeper 

 has no special name applied to him, his duties being to see that 

 his wards eat only of the prescribed foods (a list of those tabu 

 has already been given), see only what is allowed to be seen, and 

 keep within the boundaries limited to them. The men next 

 return to the main camp, where they hold their first performance, 

 that of the Native Companion, which alone the women are per- 

 mitted to see ; the dance of this particular bird invariably con- 

 stitutes the first of the performances. Subsequently the women 



