Burbung of the New England Tribes, N.8.W. 123 



baggage is laid down, and the men approach the small ring in 

 single tile, their bodies being painted in squares and ovals in 

 white and red colours. They generally arrive in the evening, 

 but sometimes early in the morning. They enter the ring and 

 go round in single file till they are all within it, and sit down on 

 the embankment, with their faces towards the country from 

 which they have come. One of them now sounds a bull roarer,* 

 and the men belonging to the ground, who may be called the 

 " hosts," then come along the track from the camp and also enter 

 the ring and walk round, keeping inside the strange men who 

 are sitting on the bank. Here they come to a stand, each man 

 looking towards the big ring. The hosts know what district the 

 new mob are from by the direction in which their faces are 

 turned, and the new mob know the hosts are the people belonging 

 to the ground, because they stand looking in that direction — 

 but neither party speak a word. 



The new men then get up and walk round the hosts, and start 

 away along the track towards the urfanbang. Each man breaks 

 two small boughs, one of which he carries in each hand, and 

 sways them in the air at intervals as he walks along. Some of 

 them may carry a boomerang in one hand, and a bush in the 

 other. On arriving at the ring, they find the women of the hosts 

 dancing within it, and the new men enter it and dance round the 

 women. Everybody, men and women, then come out of the ring. 



The women of the strangers, who had walked on to the larger 

 ring when their men went to the small one, are sitting down 

 outside the embankment, waiting. When the hosts' women come 

 out, these new women, accompanied by the novices of their tribe, 

 enter the ring. The men of the hosts, who have followed the 

 other men from the small ring, and also carrying boughs in their 

 hands, then march in round them. The strange women then 

 come out, and their men go in. The men of both tribes, being 

 now all in the ring, pull the leaves off" their green boughs and 

 throw them in the air, letting them fall on the ground, at the 

 same time calling out the names of the principal places, Burbung 

 grounds, etc., in their country. After this, all the men come out 



* Sometimes the arrivals take place in the very early morning, at or before daylight, 

 and the hosts are roused out by the sound of the bullroarer at the farther ring. 



