The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribe*. 161 



to deter them from unnatural offences and masturbation ; or it 

 may be that its obscenity adds to its fascination for the savage 

 mind. After the usual enquiries as to what this is, one of the 

 old men hits the ground and calls out, " Boballai babiabbi.'' 

 The men then get up and jump and swing their arms. The boys 

 backs are now turned, and accompanied by their guardians they 

 walk away with their eyes on the ground for a short distance, 

 where they are brought to a stand. The guardians then clap 

 their hands and tell the boys to run for about twenty yards,* 

 and stand again. The guardians now give each boy three or four 

 nulla nullas, and they are allowed to raise their heads, and can 

 look in any direction except behind them. Men and boys then 

 go on looking for game, the boys being allowed to join in the 

 sport, but if they chase a wallaby or any other animal, and it 

 runs into the rear, they cannot follow it, even if wounded, but 

 must let it escape. About mid-day, perhaps, they come to a water- 

 hole where they rest and have dinner, cooking the game they 

 have caught during the morning, after which they go in quest of 

 game on their way back to their camp of the previous night. At 

 some suitable place, the boys will be placed standing in a row 

 with their heads down, and in a little while will be ordered to 

 look up, when they see the kooringal jumping past in single file, 

 imitating kangaroos, f Each man has a tail made of grass and 

 reeds, or it may be of small bushes, tied up in a roll and stuck 

 under the hinder part of his girdle, so as to represent the tail of 

 the kangaroo. I They also have their hair tied into two bunches, 

 to represent the kangaroo's ears. When the kooringal have all 

 jumped past once, or it may be several times, the two head men 

 ask each other what this performance means, and then one of 

 them hits the ground as usual and calls out, " Bundar" (kangaroo). 

 The boys are ordered to turn their backs with their heads down 

 for a few minutes, and when they look again they see the koor- 

 ingal lying on top of each other in a heap, boballai babiabbi. 



* This ceremony of giving the boys a short run always precedes their liberation for the 

 purpose of joining in the work of hunting. 



t Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxiv., 423. 



i Lieut. -Col. Collins, in his "Account of the English Colony in New South Wales," 

 published in 179S, vol. i., p. 571, plate ill, describes a similar performance which took 

 place at the Bora witnessed by him in 1795, at the head of Farm Cove, Sydney. 



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