166 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria,. 



eyes. They dance along past the fire in pairs, having hold of each 

 others hands, the outside hand of each man resting on his hip, 

 uttering monotonous exclamations all the time. Some of the 

 conjurers then perform tricks of pulling things out of their bodies, 

 and running after the other men, the whole concluding with the 

 kooringal going into the heap, Boballai. After this, men and 

 boys retire to rest for the night. 



The following morning, after getting away from the camp, the 

 pantomime is Wood-Ducks. The kooringal come out from one 

 side and run with a waddling gait past the boys, quacking and 

 falling over each other as they go. The backs of the boys are 

 turned for a few minutes, and the men are seen in a heap, 

 Boballai. The boys are marched a short distance away and 

 liberated in the usual manner, and join the men in hunting. 

 Some time during the day the kooringal go away to a place 

 where the soil is soft, or to a sand ridge, and make a hole in the 

 ground about two feet deep. A man with his head hideously 

 disguised, and an opossum rug wrapped around him, is placed in 

 the hole. The others then withdraw, and the novices are brought 

 within twenty or thirty yards, when their attention is drawn 

 to the strange figure, and are told that it is a man rising up out 

 of the ground, perhaps some of their ancestors. They are then 

 marched away, and resume their hunting. 



The following appears to be a variation of the above : Two 

 men are disguised with white stripes of brigalow bark tied across 

 their bodies and limbs and a piece of bark strapped to the penis 

 to give it the appearance of almust touching the ground. These 

 men have their feet in holes about a foot deep, dug in the ground 

 to give them the appearance of coming up out of it, and each has 

 an opossum rug loosely thrown round him. The boys are 

 brought within a. short distance, but not too near, and are shown 

 these figures, who are waving their arms about, and who are 

 called Dhandarroogan (or Dhungully). 



Having returned to the camp and the evening meal over, the 

 novices are brought to the cleared space. Some of the wizards 

 will take a stick out of the fire and will apparently bite a piece 

 of the burning coal off one end of it. They run about clapping 

 their hands on their hips and going through obscene gestures. 

 During this time they will apparently bring different substances, 



