The Bora of the Ka/nvilaroi Tribes. 141 



people spoke Kogai, and the Kamilaroi language was spoken by 

 all the rest ; but these three dialects appeared to be mutually 

 understood by most of the people present. There were twenty- 

 four novices initiated, five of whom were half-castes. 



Gathering the Tribes. — Messengers were despatched by the 

 headman of the Tallwood tribe to all the people whom he wished 

 to be present at the ceremonies. These messengers were of the 

 Kupathin class, and totem emu, the same as their chief, and were 

 sent to men of the same totem in the other tribes. Each 

 messenger carried with him a bullroarer, several kilts, and other 

 articles, and was accompanied by a novice painted red from 

 head to foot. There was also another man with them, who 

 acted as guardian to the novice. The formalities observed 

 on the arrival of the messengers at a strange camp, and also 

 on the arrival of a tribe at the Bora ground, were practically 

 the same as previously described by me.* I was at Tall- 

 wood when some of the contingents arrived, and was present at 

 the reception at the large ring to which the men, women and 

 novices proceeded on their first arrival. I was also permitted 

 to accompany the men over the sacred ground, visiting the figures 

 of Baiamai and his female consort, the yammunyamun, and the 

 imposing spectacular display at the goonaba, where the two old 

 head men, having their bodies smeared all over with human blood, 

 stood upon the warrengahlee while the men approached them 

 swaying pieces of burning bark wrapped in green bushes, from 

 which the smoke curled upwards into the air. 



The General Encampment. — The camp was situated on level 

 ground in some heavily timbered forest country on the left bank 

 of Redbank Creek, a small tributary of the Weir River, in the 

 Parish of Tallwood, County of Carnarvon, Queensland. This 

 place is about four miles northerly from Tallwood, an old head 

 station on the main road from Goondiwindi to Mungindi. The 

 camp of the local tribe, which was the first to occupy the ground, 

 was about seventy yards from the creek, and formed the datum 

 point around which each of the other tribes pitched their camps 

 on arrival. The Goondiwindi and Welltown people camped to 

 the eastward of the local Tallwood tribe ; those from St. George on 



* See Jolirn. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 319-325. 



