Initiation Cerenionies, Arunta Tribe. 169 



hands, and after it has been rubbed on them the women adds 

 a coating of red ochre. The actual Mia of the Arakurta is never 

 allowed to see the blood. 



When the Arakurta is out in the bush the men go and visit 

 hini occasionally and on these occasions he has to undergo a 

 painful rite called " Koperta kakuma " or head biting. He is 

 placed lying face downwards, men of all classes sitting round 

 him singing about the biting of the head of the Arakurta and 

 urging the biters to bite deeply. The men who are to do the 

 biting and who may be of any class and are usually from two 

 to five in number are chosen, on each occasion on which the 

 operation is carried out, by the eldest Okilia of the youth. Tlieir 

 duty is to bite the Ijoy's scalp as hard as they can .and until 

 blood flows freely, the patient often howling with pain. Each 

 man may content himself with one bite or he may bite two or 

 even three times. The object of this really painful operation 

 is, so they say, to promote the growth of hair and at times 

 the chin may he bitten as well as the scalp. 



The Ceremony of Subincision. 



As a general rule there is an interval of between five and six 

 weeks between the ceremony of Lartna and that of Ariltha, but 

 at times it may be even longer and it depends upon the time 

 occupied by the recovery of the boy from the effects of the first 

 operation. 



The particular cei*emony which is now described took place 

 when the operation was performed upon two Arakurta one of 

 whom belonged to the Purula and the other to the Kumara 

 class, and was carried out in the northern part of the tribe. 

 It must always be remembered that the details of all the cere- 

 monies vary to a certain extent in different parts of the tribe, 

 though the essential features are similar. 



When the ceremony is to take place the men assemble at the 

 spot where the two boys have been camped after the operation of 

 Lartna. The boys are under the charge of an Okilia, who tells 

 them to lie flat down upon the ground, and covers over their 

 heads, all the young men who are of the same classes as the 



