152 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



them flat, ready for use. All the men then return to the large 

 ring and dance round within it, calling out the names of places 

 in their country, each name being received with shouts, after 

 which they start lor the camp in single tile, eacli class of men 

 keeping by themselves, and shouting as they go. On nearing the 

 camp, the novices and women join them, going into their proper 

 class positions, and all of them dance round on the cleared space 

 near the camp, the men of each tribe again calling out the names 

 of a few principal places in their country. The women dance 

 outside the men, having green bushes in their hands, from which 

 they pluck handfuls of leaves and cast them at the men as they 

 dance past. One or more of the young men, before leaving the 

 fire at the goomee, smear their bodies with ashes, and the other 

 men tell the women that the Evil Spirit rolled those fellows in 

 the ashes because they did not play right. 



On the day preceding that on which the assemblage breaks up, 

 soon after the return of the men to the camp in this way, two or 

 three of them pretend to quarrel about something,* uttering loud 

 recriminations in order to attract attention, and stand out with 

 boomerangs and other weapons in their hands. Some of the men 

 and women run from all parts of the camp to see what the dispute 

 is about with the intention uf preventing quarreling at the Bora 

 meeting. This is a well-known signal to such of the women who 

 have attended similar gatherings that the boys will be taken 

 away the next morning. The dispute suddenly ceases and the 

 men run through the camp repeating Pir-r! pir-r! and the women 

 call out Yah-ow ! in response. These shouts are kept up for a 

 short time, until the whole camp becomes aware of the order to 

 break-up. The women raise a lamentation, because they are 

 sorry that the corroborees and daily performances are all over. 



Then everybody commences to pack up, and shortly before 

 sunset they all start for the large ring, carrying sufficient water 

 to last them for the night and next morning, because the ring is 

 generally some distance from the creek, river, or water-hole where 

 the camp is situated. They camp near the ring for the night, 

 each tribe locating themselves in the direction of their country, 

 and the mothers of the novices sing bobbarubwar, and beat their 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 327. 



