158 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



are made. The first man then hits the ground with his nulla 

 nulla, and calls out " Dhurraboolbool."* The kooringal then 

 throw down the bushes and spring to their feet shouting and 

 jumping, and swinging their arms up and down in front of the 

 boys. 



The boys are then told to hold their heads down, and are 

 taken away to the place appointed for them to camp that night. 

 Here the guardians make a yard of boughs, in which they place 

 the boys. This yard consists of a partial enclosure resembling a 

 semi-circle or a horse- shoe in shape, the width across the open 

 and being about fifty feet, and the depth from there to the back 

 wall about thirty-five feet, but varying in size according to the 

 number of novices and guardians to be accommodated. Fires are 

 lit at the entrance to afford warmth to the occupants when in it. 

 The fence or wall is about four feet high, and is composed of 

 forked sticks driven into the ground, with small saplings reaching 

 from one fork to the other, and the open space between them 

 filled up with boughs so as to form a dense fence which would 

 serve the twofold purpose of preventing the boys from seeing 

 what is done at the men's camp, and also to protect the boys and 

 their guardians from cold winds. About fifty yards from the 

 convex end of this enclosure is the camp of the guardians, and 

 about an ecmal distance farther still the kooringal make their 

 camp. Such a camp would always be near a water-hole, or close 

 to the bank of a creek or river. About an hour before sundown 

 a small space is cleared on the ground between the camp of the 

 guardians and that of the kooringal. The novices are brought 

 out of their yard, and placed standing in a row on the side of 

 this cleared space. The kooringal now emerge from one side, 

 and go along on their hands and feet one after the other in close 

 succession, imitating the shape and action of grasshoppers as 

 nearly as they can. When all the men have passed by to the 

 other side, they turn and pass along again in front of the boys in 

 the same manner. The two old men then interrogate each other 

 as to what animal is meant, and one of them hits the ground with 

 his nulla nulla and shouts " Grasshopper" (Boonboon) whereupon 

 the men all get to their feet and jump and shout and wave their 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst., x.w., 331. 



