Burbung of the New England Tribes, X.S.W. 121 



This is more especially true of the Kamilaroi and Wiradthuri 

 tribes, occupying extensive tracts in the interior of New South 

 Wales, whose ceremonies of initiation have been described by me 

 elsewhere.* Even in the small strip of country occupied by the 

 New England tribes, it is found that the Burbung of the southern 

 half of the district is somewhat different in a few of the details 

 to that of the northern half. 



The Main Camp and Burbung Ground. — The locality selected 

 for the main encampment is generally situated on a moderately 

 level piece of ground, not far from water, and where plenty of 

 wood for fuel is obtainable. It is also chosen in a part of the 

 tribal territory where game is sufficiently abundant to afford a 

 food supply for the people who are in attendance while the cere- 

 monies last. The local tribe are the first to erect their quarters, 

 and the other contingents who have been invited encamp around 

 this as a datum point, each in the direction of the country from 

 which they have come. 



Every evening after dusk, and every morning at or before day- 

 light, a bullroarer is sounded by one of the single men in the 

 vicinity of the camp, and when this is heard, the men raise a 

 shout in unison, and the elderly women commence to sing and 

 beat their rugs as an accompaniment to their chants. 



Adjacent to the main camp, a slightly oval or circular space, 

 called urfanlmng, about thirty feet in diameter, is cleared of all 

 timber and grass, and the loose soil scraped off the surface in 

 making it level is used to form the raised earthen embankment 

 which surrounds it. This embankment is about a foot high, and 

 is about eighteen inches wide at the base, tapering upwards to a 

 narrow ridge along the top. 



A narrow pathway (indyoona) leads from this circle to another 

 cleared space of somewhat smaller dimensions, about a quarter of 

 a mile distant, in a secluded part of the forest. This circle is 

 likewise bounded by a raised earthen wall like the other one, and 

 within it are two heaps of earth about a foot high, on the top of 



* "The Bora, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kamilaroi Tribe," Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 

 xxiv., 411-427; Ibid., xxv., 31S-339. "The Burbling of the Wiradthuri Tribes,'' Joum. 

 Anthrop. Inst., xxv., -295-318. 





