HY PRESIDENTS ADDRESS—SECTION F. 
of communing with the spirits, that is, if they are sedate, for the 
spirits dislike scoffers, frivolous people, and men who are, as 
the natives say, like women, “irkun oknirra,” or much given to 
chattering. No sooner does a boy begin to go about in the 
bush in search of food than he finds himself very considerably 
restricted as to what he may and may not eat. Through 
fear of evil magic there are many foods otherwise tempting 
which he must carefully avoid. Should he eat kangaroo tail or 
wild turkey, or its eggs, then he will become prematurely old ; 
parrot or cockatoo flesh will cause the growth of a hollow on the 
top of his head, and of a hole under his chin; large quail and its 
eggs cause the beard and whiskers not to grow; any part of the 
eaglehawk other than the sinewy legs will produce leanness,. 
though the strong legs are admirable, as they improve the 
growth of the same limb; in fact, to strengthen the limb, boys 
are often hit on the calf by the leg bone of an eaglehawk, 
streneth passing from the one into the other. Should the 
podargus, or night jar, be eaten, then the boy’s mouth will ac- 
quire a wide gape. It is evident from this, which is by no 
means a complete list, that there is at once a desire by means of 
sympathetic magic to strengthen the boy, and more still, a desire 
to take advantage of the strong influence of magic so as to 
reserve the best things for the older men. 
As the youth grows up, and begins to mingle with the men, 
associating with them in their hunts, he hears vaguely of other 
forms of magic which are as yet kept secret from him ; he knows 
that there are sacred objects powerful in magic which he may 
not look upon, and that there are certain men who know much 
more about the hidden matters than others do, and are corres- 
pondingly respected by their fellow tribesmen, and looks forward 
to the time when he shall be initiated, and allowed to take his 
place amongst the other men, and learn something of the 
secrets, a knowledge of which is all the more attractive to him 
because it is so zealously guarded by the older men. 
Up till the time of his initiation he has been taught that the 
strange noise which he every now and then hears when the men 
are engaged in the performance of sacred magic rites, from 
which he has been carefully excluded, is the voice of a great 
spirit, Twanyirika. When he is initiated he learns that the 
noise is made by the twirling round of the bullroarers, and with 
much solemnity a few of them are handed to him for safe keep- 
ing, with the stern injunction that on no account must they be 
lost, or shown to women and children. They are so full of 
magic that should a woman or child see one she would die. 
After initiation he takes his place amongst the men, and when 
the head man of his group thinks he is worthy of the honour 
he is taken to the sacred store house, and there shown the 
Churinga, learns what they signify, and is told his secret name. 
