36 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



hunting the programme of the evening's performances is 

 arranged, and is carried out by the men in the same manner as 

 on the previous night. Different animals are represented each 

 evening, and the singing is varied as much as their scanty 

 repertoire of songs will admit of, the members of each tribe con- 

 tributing a fair share. It often happens that a fresh camping 

 place is reached each night, and in that case it would be neces- 

 sary for the novices and guardians to accompany the rest of the 

 men when they start out in the morning. The novices march 

 along with their heads bowed as usual, and when stoppages are 

 made in the bush, they are put sitting on the ground, and are 

 told not to gaze ai'ound them. On arriving at the place which 

 has been selected as the camping ground for the night, a bough 

 yard is made for the boys as before ; or if the weather is warm, 

 the yard may be dispensed with. During the evenings at these 

 camping places in the bush human excrement is occasionally 

 given in small quantities to the novices, and they are also com- 

 pelled to drink some of the urine of the men, collected in a bark 

 vessel for this purpose.^ 



I must now take the reader back to the morning on which 

 the boys were taken away from their mothers at the waudarral 

 ring in the manner already described. Shortly after the novices 

 and their guardians have gone out of sight the women pack up all 

 their baggage and start away to another site, which has been 

 fixed upon by the old men, where they erect a new camp, the 

 members of each tribe keeping by themselves on the side facing 

 the district from which they have come — the camp of the local 

 mob forming the initial point. Several old men remain with the 

 women to assist them in removing the camp, and also to watch 

 that everything is conducted in conformity with tribal custom. 

 At this camp the mothers of the novices sing every morning and 

 evening during the time their sons ar-e away in the bush with 

 the head men. When they have been here about a week, another 

 tribe of men and women arrive, and after the usual formalities 

 of reception have been gone through they proceed to erect their 

 quarters on the side of the new camp which is in the direction 



1 See my paper on "The Keeparra Ceremony of Initiation." Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 

 Nxvi., Nc. 99, May, 1S9T. 



