Initiation Ceremonies, Arimtd Tribe. 159 



other men stand in tlie path with their U\<:;s wide apart shifting 

 their heads from side to side and making the twigs quiver. 

 Then the Wurtja is told to sit up and the performers at once 

 greet his appearance with imitations of the sounds ma<le by 

 kangaroos; then the young kangaroo, called " Kulla Kulla," 

 begins frisking about pretending to rush at the other performers, 

 and finally dar-ts between the legs of each man and emerges at 

 the western end of the column where he lies down quietly for 

 a minute or two. After he has done this four times he is caught 

 up as he comes through the legs of the man who stands nearest 

 to the Wurtja and is carried up to the latter and placed upon 

 him and then all the other performers throw themselves upon 

 the top of him so that the AVurtja has actually to bear the 

 whole mass of men. (The Wurtja himself on this particular 

 occasion did not ajDpear to be any the worse for this trying 

 experience, but one of the performers fainted as soon as they 

 extricated themselves. The stoical calmness of the young 

 Wurtja was most marked throughout the whole ceremony). 

 The performers then seat themselves amongst the audience and 

 the remaining three men then come on and go through the same 

 performance, one of them personating a young kangaroo as 

 before. The latter is again laid on top of the Wurtja and the 

 other tw o men lie on the top of him. For this lying down on 

 the top of the novitiate there is a special term — " wultha- 

 chelpima." After the usual explanations and cautions the 

 Wurtja is again led back to his own bi-ake by his Okilia. 

 During the evening when the men are assembled at the Apulia 

 he is brought back and lying down listens to the singing wliich 

 continues with little interruption during the whole night. 



On the morning of the ninth day the Wurtja is carefully 

 greased all over by the elder Okilia in whose special charge he 

 is and remains crouching or lying down at his brake until noon 

 when he is blindfolded and brought to the Apulia. Then the 

 kangaroo performance of the previous day is again enacted, the 

 performance including the lying down upon the Wurtja. After 

 this two more kangaroo ceremonies are performed the second of 

 which is of some importance. The principal performer carries a 

 large Waninga on the top of which a smaller one is attached, 

 the large one representing a full grown kangaroo, and the 



