350 REPORT— 1891. 



evidently dressed up to suit the mode of publication, and the 

 authenticity of which is not guaranteed by the names of the 

 authors, and the facts stated are not capable of verification. 



The earliest authentic account with which I am acquainted 

 is that given by Collins in his account of the first settlement 

 of New South Wales. There can be no doubt that he was 

 present at one of the boras, for his descriptions and the illus- 

 trations in his book are suflSciently accurate, and delineate 

 parts of ceremonies which I have myself witnessed. Collins 

 was, however, absent from them during the night, at which 

 time some of the impressive spectacular performances take 

 place. Collins's account is, however, a most valuable testimony 

 of the existence of these bo7-a ceremonies in the form in which 

 they occurred before the white men settled in Australia, and 

 also of the teachings imparted in them. 



There were, and no doubt still are, white men who have 

 been duly admitted to the boras, and were quite capable of 

 giving most important evidence regarding their ceremonial in 

 distant parts of Australia, but it is remarkable that two at least 

 within my knowledge have absolutely refuced to describe them. 

 No doubt these men were at the time they were admitted 

 bound down under a solenm promise to secrecy and silence, 

 and honourably keep it. We must regret that they are tongue- 

 tied, but we must admire their constancy. Fortunately, in 

 my own case no such promise was exacted, for I attended 

 tinder circumstances in the first instance which caused those 

 who conducted the bora to receive me as one having already 

 acquired the status of one of themselves. 



It seems singular that Buckley makes no remark upon 

 the bora, for in his character of resuscitated blackfellow he 

 would undoubtedly have been held to have been " made a 

 young man " in whatever way that ceremony was practised in 

 his tribe. But it seems that the bora among the Kulin tribes 

 of the Yarra Eiver and of Western Port district was reduced to 

 a mere semblance of the full, picturesque, and impressive 

 burbling of the more northern tribes, and it is probable that 

 the neighbours of these Kulins with whom Buckley lived so 

 long had ceremonies equally simple. If so, there would have 

 been little to attract his attention, or to cause him to specially 

 mention it to the biographer who recorded his adventures. 



Morell and Davis, who also lived with the aborigines in 

 Queensland for years, have, so far as I know, not given any 

 account of the boras held there. In South Australia, Gason, 

 who is well known as having been accepted by the Dieri Tribe 

 as one of their tribesmen, has given an account of the several 

 ceremonies through which the boy ascends to perfect manhood 

 in that tribe. But these accounts are wanting in those details 

 and descriptions which are necessary to enable the anthro- 



