NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 175 



hollow log indicating the hollow trunk or limb of the tree, while 

 the two beeswax funnels are supposed to be the lipped openings 

 whereby the bees enter. It is placed in the ground as shown in 

 the diagram (Fig. 10), and renders the area tabu; 10 all have to 



Fig. 10. 



tread upon it as they pass over it. The novices are next entirely 

 covered with red paint (but wearing no cockatoo top-knot head- 

 dress) and taken down in procession to the main camp; here each 

 one, while held by an old man at the side, is beaten on the calves 

 with wet hushes by his youngest group-mother, and then goes 

 into hiding. They ultimately return, join in the dancing with 

 the men and women, and sleep in the main camp that night. 

 Next day the novices are covered with bushes and led to another 

 and smaller cleared circular space (unconnected by any allej'-way 

 with the original one) where they are hidden under ;i heap of 

 bushes, and where the wrestling contests take place in the 

 presence of the women. So as to prevent any quarrelling, 

 brothers as a rule are made to wrestle with each other, though 

 the participants may have to be separated by relatives inter- 

 vening with raised hands. Here the novices stay all night, and 

 during the course of the next few mornings get painted with 

 white streaks, one above and below the eyes, joining at the outer 

 angles, continued down each side of the neck, and so over the 

 trunk on to the front of each thigh. They are then told to lie 

 down and go to sleep, which they pretend to do by lying perfectly 

 still on their backs with eyes closed. Each one is next suddenly 

 " awakened " by a sharp pinch on the arm and told that he has 

 been snake-bitten, at which he commences to be frightened, and 

 then starts crying. His old mentor then proceeds to kill the 

 imaginary snake by means of a small variety of bull-roarer which 

 he whirls through the air in various directions, such action being 

 believed to prevent the bite having a fatal effect. This bull- 

 roarer is now given to the novice, who then has the power not 

 only to kill snakes but even people by its agency ; it is called 

 dunggul, a term also meaning a snake. Two or three days 

 later the snake dance is ended by the novices being shown a 



10 I had already met with these murla on initiation grounds on the 

 Stareke River and on the Bloomfield River ; the specimen from the latter 

 locality is, however, solid. 



