144 Procee(Jni</x of tlic Boi/al Socicfi/ of Victoria. 



The First Cepemony. — Throwing the Boy up. 



The first ceremony amongst the Arunta tribe takes place when, 

 at all events in the northern part of the tribe, a boy is between 

 ten and twelve years of age. The men, and also the women, 

 assemble at a spot near to the main camp and the boys who have 

 reached the right age are taken one by one and tossed in the air 

 several times by the men who catch them as they fall while the 

 women dance round and round swinging their ai'ms about and 

 shouting " pow " " pow " "powa-a-a,"' the last cry being very 

 prolonged. When this is over the boys are painted on their 

 chests and backs with simple designs, consisting of straiglit or 

 curved bands outlined by lines of red or yellow ochre. So far as 

 we can discover these have no special significance, they certainly 

 have no reference to either the class^ or totem of the boys.^ 

 The painting of each boy is done by one or more men who stand 

 to him in the relationship of "umbirna," that is a man who is 

 the brother of a woman of the class from wliieh his, i.e., the 

 boy's, wife must come. The design is called " EnchichTchika," 

 and while being painted the boys are told that the ceremony 

 through which they have just passed will promote their future 

 growth to manhood, and they are told by tribal fathers and elder 

 brothers that in future they must not play with the women and 

 girls, nor must they can)p as they have hitherto done with them 

 but must henceforth go to the camp of the younger and 

 unmarried men which is known as the "Ungunja." Up to this 

 time they have been accustomed to go out with the women as 

 they searched for vegetable food and the smaller animals such as 

 lizards and rats, now they begin to accompany the men in their 

 search for larger game and begin also to look forward to the 



1 We use the term "diss" in reference to the internKUTyin'j:', exno-ainous (i!\isions of 

 the tribe. 



2 In all the ceremonies of initiation the youth or man has certain desii^ns jiainted on his 

 body, and in no cuse ha\e they any reference of necessity to his own totem thouyh they 

 are emblematic of some totem with which usually the man who does the paintinff is 

 associated. These designs come under the general term of " Ilkinia" the name applied to 

 the series of desiyfns which ai-e emblematic of the various totems and, so long- as the boy, 

 youth or man has one or other of these painted on, it does not siy:nify which. It must 

 be remembered that the man who does the painting is the person who decides upon 

 the nature of the design. It may also be noted that in the performance of sacred 

 ceremonies men are constantly decorated with designs belonging to totems other than 

 their own. 



