Burbung of the New England Tribes, JST.S.W. 127 



A short distance from this main camp a piece of level ground 

 is selected and cleared of sticks and loose rubbish, and in the 

 middle of it two tires are lit, about twenty yards apart. This 

 place is called Aychowal. Around these tires the mothers and 

 sisters of the novices dance every evening accompanied by all 

 the women and children of the tribes present. None of the 

 men participate in these dances at the Aychowal. The last 

 night before the boys are brought back the women dance and 

 sing around these tires nearly all night. 



The morning following the establishment of this new camp, 

 one of the old men, accompanied by one or two of the elder 

 women, pay a visit to the original camp. The man goes to the 

 small ring and cuts a nick in the long slanting pole already 

 described, to show that all the people have been gone away one 

 clay. One of the women also marks the upright pole at the 

 large ring with one nick, conveying the same meaning. The 

 nick cut by the man is horizontal, that cut by the woman in the 

 other pole is vertical, the women not being allowed to mark their 

 pole in the same way as the men mark theirs. This marking of 

 the poles would be continued for some days, until the tribes 

 expected had either arrived, or it was thought they did not 

 intend to be present. 



I will now endeavour to explain the use and meaning of these 

 poles : — It sometimes happens that a tribe may be delayed on 

 the road by rain or floods, or other causes, and arrive a day or 

 two after the boys have been taken away. On arriving at the 

 main camp and finding it deserted, the initiated men would all 

 proceed to the small ring, and the women, novices, and 

 children to the large one, where they would see the poles 

 erected, letting them know how many days previously the 

 main mob had left. The sticks laid upon the ground, 

 radiating round a common centre, would let the men see what 

 tribes were present, and also what tribes, if any, are still 

 missing. They would then add another stick, pointing in the 

 direction of the country they had themselves come from. The 

 men would then go from the small ring along the track, looking 

 at everything as they went, and join their women and boys at 

 the other ring. All of them would then start in the direction 

 indicated by the poles, and on coming up to the new camp they 



