178 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



have the same social rights in that, as soon as the scars are healed, 

 they are " men," and can have wives. 



After having been crammed with the bara nut, their bellies 

 distended, and the incisions made, the novices next get up 

 and go inside a hut specially reserved for them, a very big 

 grass one, and there they stay by themselves. The same 

 food, which the women have prepared for them, is brought 

 here by the men, with whom only, besides amongst them- 

 selves, are they allowed to speak. They may walk about in 

 the close neighbourhood, but must wear the bark blanket around 

 them when the gins may see them thus covered, but from a dis- 

 tance only. This goes on for two or three days, during which 

 period certain of the elder men go hunting for eels. At the end 

 of this time, the novices are taken to some isolated spot away 

 from their camp, and while their attention is purposely diverted 

 to something else, another old man will suddenly jump into view 

 and frighten them. The latter generally appears from behind, 

 holds the cooked eels in front of him, and then divides them 

 amongst the lads, who eat them, rubbing the fat over their 

 bellies. After the eating of these fish, the kokai-kokai (as the 

 boy is called after he receives his chest-mark) becomes a ngu-tclia. 

 He still remains within, or in the neighbourhood of, the special 

 grass-hut for another day or two, during which period the elder 

 men prepare the kumbi (Colocasia macrorrhiza) root and frighten 

 him with it as was done in the case of the eels. Some four or 

 five days after the commencement of the ceremony, the scars 

 begin to heal, and the youth is called a mulari, when he may be 

 seen by the others as well as by the women. A few weeks later 

 the scars are quite healed and raised, and he is called a chalma, 

 a "man," when he is allowed to many. 



During the whole ceremony, the novice only partakes of the 

 eels and the Colocasia, everything else being forbidden him, but 

 when it is over the restriction is removed and he can eat anything 

 he chooses. 



6. In the hinterland of Princess Charlotte Bay, amongst the 

 Koko-warra and Koko-rarmul, where I watched the initiation 

 proceedings during November, 1898, the first takes place during 

 the latter months of the dry season, after the lad has arrived at 

 early puberty. He is caught up from amongst his mates in 

 camp and taken by force, notwithstanding his own screams and 

 his mother's entreaties, to a cleared circular space, the name of 

 which (KYVA. bo-ata, KRA. barta) gives the name to the first of 

 the series of rites which take place here. This space is about 

 twenty to twenty-four feet diameter with the edges all raised 

 except that portion of it facing the north, where there is a sort 



