126 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



deserted ring, the mothers and sisters of the novices generally 

 feel very tristful, and vent their feelings by crying. 



All the women and children, and such of the men as have 

 remained with them, pack up all their moveables, and prepare for 

 a start to another camp, the site of which had previously been 

 fixed' by the head men after discussion among themselves. Before 

 leaving the camp, they tix a mark as a guide to any other tribes 

 who may not have yet arrived. This is done by inserting a pole, 

 eight or ten feet long, upright in the ground inside of the ring, 

 the top of it being ornamented by having a bunch of leaves tied 

 to it. On the shaft of this vertical pole, about four or five feet 

 from the ground, another pole or stick about three or four feet 

 long is lashed to it at right angles, pointing in the direction of 

 the new camp. If there be a turn in the way leading to the 

 latter, a stick having a corresponding bend in it would be used 

 for the horizontal pule ; and if the way to the new camp passed 

 over creeks, their position would be indicated on the horizontal 

 pole by means of pieces of stick tied across it, equal in number 

 and in relative positions to the creeks to be passed over. 



A somewhat similar guide is left by the men at the small ring. 

 They cut a pole, which may consist of a tall sapling growing near 

 about twenty feet long, and lean it in the low fork of another 

 sapling, perhaps six feet high, in such a way that the elevated 

 end points in the direction in which the boys were taken into the 

 bush, the other end of the pole resting on the ground. Close by 

 this slanting pole they also make marks on the surface of the 

 ground, by means of small poles or sticks laid horizontally round 

 a centre, representing all the tribes who are present — one of these 

 sticks pointing in the direction of the country from which each 

 tribe has come. Those tribes which have not yet arrived are not 

 represented, but a space or opening is left where their pole ought 

 to be. This index is called aradna. 



Having made these preparations, the men, women and children 

 proceed to the site chosen for the new camp, which is called 

 Ahrowang. The people of the local tribe are the first to select 

 their quarters, around which the other tribes take up their 

 respective positions, each in the direction of the country they 

 have come from. 



