146 Proc('('drn(/s of f]tr liot/dl Socirfif of Vicforic. 



of the kangaroo totem, we omit certain details which would 

 necessitate for their proper understanding too lengthy a reference 

 to ti'aditions dealing with the past history of the tribe. In the 

 performance of every ceremony the Arunta native is bound hand 

 and foot by tradition, what his fore-fathers did that he must 

 likewise do, and in connection with every custom, however 

 trivial, he has some ti'adition telling him exactly how he must 

 act and what he must do. 



We may, however, very briefly refer here as follows to certain 

 of the ti'aditions which have reference to the ceremonies of 

 initiation: a full account of them will be published subsequently. 



The earliest period to which any tradition refers is always 

 spoken of by the natives as the " Alcheringa." At the very 

 beginning of this, so says tradition, there were no true human 

 beings such as now exist but only " Inajjertwa,"^ that is almost 

 shapeless beings in which just the vague outlines of the different 

 limbs and parts of the body could be detected. Two spirit 

 beings who lived far away in the western sky and who were 

 called " Ungambikfdla," a word which signifies "made out of 

 nothing," or "self-existing," came down to earth and transformed 

 the Inapertwa creatures into men and women, and further they 

 performed upon some but not all of them the rite of circumcision, 

 using for the performance of the operation ^a fire-stick. It is 

 worthy of note that this tradition of the early use of the 

 tire-stick is widely spi'ead through the various divisions of the 

 Arunta tribe. At a slightly later period, but in the Alcheringa, 

 certain ancestral individuals who belonged to the Ullakupera, or 

 little hawk totem, introduced the practice of performing the 

 operation by means of a stone knife. Shortly after this, 

 individuals belonging to the Achilpa, or "wild cat" totem, 

 introduced the rite of Ariltha or subincision. 



It will be seen from this, which is the briefest possible outline 

 of lengthy traditions dealing with the subject, that the traditions 

 of the tribe refer to three distinct and successive periods: (1) 

 one in which circumcision was practised by means of a tix'e- 

 stick, (2) one in which the use of the stone knife was introduced, 

 and (3) a later period when sulnncision was introduced. 



1 In the Report of the Horn Expedition, vol. iv., p. 185, this word was by mistake 

 written " Inaperlwa." The spellin.u' and account now yi\ en are correct. 



