11 



iralligirniiia poised, stamp their feet in front of the boys 

 uttering harsh cries of &rr-re! drr-re! and (joni! On the con- 

 clusion of this performance the boys, upon a given signal, 

 look at the men. This finishes the first part of the ceremony. 



For the next few months the boys, who are now styled 

 Bollier, are kept away from the women and camp. They are 

 led away into the bush by the men. whom they must assist 

 by gathering food, and in other ways. At intervals they are 

 submitted to severe blows between the shoulders by the old 

 men in charge, and given to understand that they must, on 

 peril of death, preserve strict silence as to all that has passed. 

 Upon his return to camp, the BoUlcr usually has additional 

 cicatrices inflicted upon his upper arm and thigh. 



The Larrekiya does not circumcise, though they say that 

 in early days the rite was practised until, at one ceremony, a 

 subject died from the effects. Their belief is. now, that if 

 anyone of the Larrekiya were to be circumcised he would die.* 

 The Melville Island natives, also, do not circumcise.! 



The Initiation Ceremony of the Wogait Youth. 



At the initiation of a Wogait, after his fortitude has been 

 tested by scarring the chest, he is thrown on his back over 

 the legs of four men, who sit close 

 together two and two, facing one an- 

 other, with their legs alternately 

 spaced, so that the toes of one are 

 next to the buttock of the man oppo- 

 site; the legs of the four men form- 

 ing, collectively, a continuous plat- 

 form. X This stage is shown in fig. 3. 

 A fifth man then sits upon the vic- 

 tim's chest, facing the operator; 

 while another holds his head. The 

 boy is gagged with a bundle of fur, which further serves the 

 purpose of allowing him to bite upon it during his pain; his 

 ears are stuffed, and his hands kept at his sides. The operator, 

 smeared all over with pipe-clay, approaches from behind, and, 

 kneeling upon the boy's thighs, draws the prepuce well for- 

 ward, and cuts it off with a quartz flake. The wound is 



* 0/., "A reason was given for the custom falling into 

 desuetude thait the skin became too tender." Parkhouse : "Austr. 

 Assoc. Adv. Science, v^ol. vi.. 1895. p. 643. 



t Vide Foelsohe: Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., vol. v.. 1882, p. 17. 



X "In the ceremony of the Agijrakuudi, a tribe soutli of 

 the A war mi, eight men lay on the ground, their faces in their 

 folded arms, head and feet alternating, the backs forming a 



platform. Upon the buttocks the boy was laid. . . ." Park- 



houjse, op. cit., p. 645. 



