156 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



novices, and, perhaps, other men not connected with the cere- 

 monies, now pack up their things and start away after the boys, 

 who have perhaps by this time gone about half-an-hour. The 

 women, and such of the men who remain to assist them, now pack 

 up and proceed to the place decided upon for the erection of the 

 Thurrawonga camp, described in previous pages. 



Ceremonies in the Bush. — In the meantime the guardians, 

 bumboon, have taken the novices, who are now called wundha- 

 murrin, away along the track, the boys heads being bowed upon 

 their breasts, and are followed by the men with the bullroarers. 

 On reaching a clear space near the commencement of the yamun- 

 yaniun, all the boys are made to lie flat on the ground, face down- 

 wards, with their arms close by their sides, and their feet towards 

 the circle they have just left. If the ground is damp, opossum 

 rugs are spread out for the boys to lie upon. While the boys are 

 lying here, the men who used the mungawans have had time to 

 put on disguises in the shape of strips of bark tied across their 

 bodies like shoulder belts, as well as around their arms and legs, 

 and also across their faces. Being disguised in this grotesque 

 manner they come up quietly and stand two or three yards from 

 the feet of the boys ; the guardians are standing by the boys' 

 heads all the time, and clap their hands on their thighs to prevent 

 the boys hearing the men approaching. The novices are then 

 helped to rise, and on getting to their feet they are told to turn 

 round and look at the grotesque figures before them. These men, 

 called binnialowee* now step up quite close to the boys and com- 

 mence to dance and wave their ; rms (Irrumburrunga), and 

 shouting birr-r-r ! The boys now turn their backs upon the 

 binnialowee, who go away to the goomee leaving the boys 

 standing where they were. Two or three men are now seen 

 approaching from a direction about at right angles to the path 

 connecting the circles. Each of these men carries in his left hand 

 a smoking stick, and in his right a boomerang, and are shouting 

 Ah-h-h-ow ! and other sounds. On coming within say thirty or 

 forty yards they rush towards the boys and throw, each, a boome- 

 rang over their heads. They do not come up to get the boome- 

 rangs again, but immediately go away in the direction from which 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 331. 



