The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes. 165 



thickness of a whip-handle, picked up around the camp. After 

 dancing a few minutes the men throw the sticks out of their 

 mouths into the fire, and go and get other similar sticks. This 

 is repeated for some time, after which all the men dance round 

 the fire for a little while without anything in their mouths. The 

 fire having now burnt clown to cinders, the men jump upon it 

 with their naked feet and scatter the embers in all directions and 

 put it out. This dance is called Boodell Boodellyinga. 



Next morning a start is made as usual, and when a short 

 distance from the camp, the Kangaroo-Rat (Noolooboonya) is 

 represented. The boys are placed as usual and the kooringal 

 are seen gathering bunches of grass, which they carry in their 

 arms and build a nest like the kangaroo-rat, only much larger. 

 "When the nest is completed, the men, one after another, go and 

 put their heads in it, and then hop past the boys, imitating the 

 shape and action of the animal. The men then go into Boballai, 

 after which a fresh start is made. The boys are made to run 

 several yards, and nulla nullas given them as before described, 

 and all hands go on hunting. It may be that the novices are not 

 kept together. One lot of guardians and their novices may go in 

 one direction, and another lot may go into a different hunting 

 ground, and these detachments may not meet again until their 

 return to the camp perhaps an hour or so before sundown. One 

 lot on approaching the other would whistle. "When they all get 

 together near the camp, the game of Locusts (Ngaddalla) is 

 performed.* The boys stand with their heads clown while the 

 kooringal climb trees, and catch hold of the branches imitating 

 the position and noise of locusts. The boys are then told to 

 look, and in a short time the men come down from the trees and 

 crawl along the ground past the boys, and conclude the perform- 

 ance by going into Boballai. The novices having been taken to 

 their yard, and all hands having had supper, a fire or fires are lit 

 alongside of the cleared space at the camp, and the boys brought 

 to see the performance. The kooringal are painted in white 

 stripes extending from the feet to the neck, with a central line 

 from the forehead down the nose, chin and body, terminating at 

 the end of the penis. WTiite circles are also drawn around the 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 333. 



