154 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



taken and placed sitting on the bank with their feet outside — the 

 group of boys of each tribe sitting on that side of the bank which 

 is nearest their own country, their heads being covered with rugs. 

 The mothers of the boys ai'e now taken and placed lying clown on 

 the ground on the other side of the bough screen — each mother 

 being opposite to her son, with her head towards him. The other 

 women and the children are a little farther back. Each woman 

 lies on her side with her head resting on her hand and elbow, and 

 her eyes looking towards the ground. When the women and 

 children are all placed lying down, they are covered over with 

 rugs and bushes, and a few men appointed to watch them.* 



During the time that these preparations have been going on at 

 the large ring, the kooringal have also been at work at the 

 goomee. They have been painting the whole of their bodies with 

 powdered charcoal or burnt grass mixed with grease, which gives 

 them an intense black colour. The binnialowee are likewise pre- 

 paring for their share of the work by disguising their faces and 

 bodies with strips of bark. The warrengahlee are pulled up out 

 of the goonaba and burnt. 



As soon as these arrangements have been completed at the 

 goomee and at the camp, the men at the latter form a circle out- 

 side of the ring, and each man beats together two nullas, a boom- 

 erang and a nulla, a throwing stick and a spear, a nulla and a 

 hielaman, or any other two weapons he may happen to have at 

 hand. The distant sound of the bullroarer, the voice of Dhurra- 

 moolun is then heard, and one of the old men sings out : " Here 

 he comes ;" others shout out Yooah yananga (" go away ") as if 

 addressing Dhurramoolun, and the fathers of the boys pretend to 

 be in great grief. The women and children begin to cry. A 

 number of men from the goomee now quickly approach along the 

 track and enter the ring through the opening in its wall, and run 

 round in single file just outside the bank, all the time beating the 

 ground with pieces of bark, mungawan, before described. Some 

 of the men have two such pieces of bark — one in each hand — 

 others have only one larger piece which they use in both hands. 

 While these men are running round and beating the ground, but 

 not shouting, the other men who are standing outside are beating 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 329. 



