30 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



creek, or lagoon of water in a part of the tribe's domain in which 

 there is sufficient game to furnish food for all the people during 

 the continuance of the ceremonies. In the vicinity of this main 

 camp a circular or slightly oval space, known as the IVandarral, 

 about thirty yards in diameter, is cleared of all timber and grass, 

 and the soil scraped off the surface in making it level is used to 

 form a mound, or embankment, about nine or twelve inches high 

 around it. The base of the embankment is about eighteen inches 

 wide and tapers upwards to a narrow ridge upon the top. A 

 narrow path, made by scraping the surface of the ground smooth, 

 and throwing the loose earth on either side, leads from this circle 

 to another similai'ly cleared space, called the Kaiigaragal, which 

 is also bounded by a raised earthen wall, about fifteen or twenty 

 chains distant, in a secluded place out of sight of the zvafidarral. 

 Where the path meets each of the circles an opening about two 

 feet wide is left in the embankment as an entrance to these 

 enclosures. A short distance from the kangaragal a fire is kept 

 burning, around which some of the old men camp for the purpose 

 of keeping guard over the sacred ground. 



^^'ithin the kangaragal are two stumps, called the ivarran- 

 gooringa, prepared in the following way. Two straight saplings 

 are dug out of the ground by the roots, and their stems or boles 

 cut through about six or seven feet from the base, all the bark 

 being stripped from the stems and roots. The stems are then 

 reversed end for end and are inserted in holes dug into the ground 

 for the purpose to the depth of a foot or more, and the earth 

 rammed in tightly around them to make them stand firm. The 

 roots attached to these stems, being now at the top, spread out 

 laterally to a distance of two or three feet, and some of them 

 even more, and have narrow strips of bark twisted around them 

 to make them ornamental. The stems and roots of these stumps 

 are then stained with human blood, obtained by making small 

 incisions in the arms of several of the men and allowing the 

 blood to drip into bark vessels until a sufficient quantity for the 

 purpose has been collected, after which the wounds in tlie men's 

 arms are stopped by the application of cobwebs or opossum fur.^ 



1 Compare with my description of similar stumps, called warrengahlee, used by the 

 Kamilaroi tribes. Journ. Anthrop. Inst. London, xxv., 325; Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 

 ix. (N.S.), 143. 



