160 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria.. 



uttering a series of short shouts. The kooringal, guardians and 

 novices at the camp would then stand in a row, and the new 

 comers would rush up near them and then retire and go away to 

 their comrades. In a short time they would return bringing with 

 them their novices, who are brought to the yard and put amongst 

 the novices belonging to the kooringal, who have in the meantime 

 been taken back from the men's camp, and know nothing of the 

 other novices until the latter are placed amongst them. The 

 guardians of the new boys are with them and join the other 

 guardians, and the men who accompany them attach themselves 

 to the kooringal. 



After breakfast the men and boys start out hunting for the 

 day. The novices are taken out of the yard, and walk beside 

 their guardians with their eyes cast upon the ground in front of 

 them, and their hands down close by their sides. After they 

 have got out of sight of the camp, they come up to the kooringal, 

 who have started before them and unknown to them. The boys 

 are placed in a row near the edge of a thick patch of scrub, and 

 when all is ready they are told to raise their heads and look. 

 The kooringal come out of the scrub one after the other, 

 imitating the appearance of flying foxes (gahmon). The old men 

 make the usual enquiries of each other as to what animal is 

 intended, and then one of them hits the ground with his nulla 

 nulla and calls out " Gahmon." The boys backs are now turned 

 towards the kooringal for a short time, when they are again told 

 to turn round and look. They now see all the kooringal lying 

 on top of each other in a heap called Boballai,* which 1 will 

 endeavour to describe. Supposing there are twenty men in the 

 kooringal, first about nine or ten of them would get down on the 

 ground on their knees and elbows, as close together as they could 

 lie ; then about half-a-dozen more would lie on top of these, and 

 the remainder on top of the second lot. A groaning noise is kept 

 up by all the men during the time they are in the heap. Most 

 of the positions assumed are very obscene, and some of them dis- 

 gusting, but judging from the frequency with which this part is 

 enacted, one would think that it must be of more than ordinary 

 importance. It is perhaps intended as a moral lesson to the boys 



* Joiirn. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 333. 



