PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. SME 
such a pretended new birth at initiation. Elsewhere I have 
shown that a pretence of killing the novices and bringing them 
to life again is often enacted at the initiatory rites by which 
boys are made into men (f). On this hypothesis the carrying 
of the Ambilyerikirra, “or newly born child,’ towards the 
women, and the falling of the novices on the top of it in their 
presence would signify that the women had also to take their 
part in bringing about the new birth. 
The same notion may, perhaps, throw light on another part 
of the ceremony. Before the novices lay down for the night, 
and before the master of the ceremonies began to lft the 
Ambilyerikivra wp and down, the novices went in a body to the 
women, and compassing them about on three sides, threw burn- 
ing fire-sticks by hundreds over them, while the women protected 
themselves as well as they could by holding sticks and boughs 
over their heads. The meaning of this part of the ceremony 
is very obscure, and it is with diffidence that I venture to hazard 
a conjecture on so dark a subject. But the ceremony reminds 
us strongly of the pretence which is made of burning both the 
women and the novices at the initiation ceremony of the Wirad- 
thuri tribes of New South Wales, as these ceremonies have lately 
been described by Mr. R. H. Matthews. At a certain stage in 
the initiation ceremonies of these tribes the women and children 
huddled together, and were securely covered up with blankets 
and bushes. Then a number of men came from the sacred 
eround where the initiation ceremonies were performed. Some 
of them swung bull-roarers, and some of them took up lighted 
sticks from a fire, and threw them over the women and children 
“to make them believe Dhuramoolan had tried to burn them.” 
At a later period of the ceremonies the boys were similarly 
covered up with blankets, a large fire was kindled near them, 
and when the crackling of the wood and the roaring of the flames 
became audible, several old men began to swing bull-roarers, 
and the lads were told that Dhuramoolan was about to burn 
them. These performances were explained by a legend that 
Dhuramoolan, a powerful being whose voice sounded like the 
rumbling of distant thunder, had been charged by a still more 
powerful being called Baiamai with the duty of taking the boys 
away into the bush and instructing them in all the laws, tradi- 
tions, and customs of the community. So Dhuramoolan pre- 
tended that he always killed the boys, cut them up, and burnt 
them to ashes, after which he moulded the ashes into human 
shape, and restored them to life as new beings (g). Now, if 
among the Wiradthuri tribes this pretence of burning was asso- 
(f) The Golden Bough, I1., pp. 342-357. ' 
(g) R. H. Matthews, ‘‘ The Burbung of the Wiradthuri Tribes,” Journal of the Anthrop- 
ological Institute, XXV. (1896), pp. 297 sq., 308, 311. Compare id., in Journ. Anthrop, 
Inst., XXV1. (1897), p. 336. 
