AUSTRALIA. 



singularity that distinguishes every thing relating to this people, the 

 following arc the most remarkable. 



1. The ceremony of initiation. When the boys arrive at the a&e 

 of puberty (or about fourteen), the elders of a tribe prepare to initiate 

 them into the duties and privileges of manhood. Suddenly, at night, 

 a dismal cry is heard in the woods, which the boys are told is the 

 Bubu calling for them. Thereupon all the men of the tribe (or rather 

 of the neighborhood) set off for some secluded spot previously fixed 

 upon, taking with them the youths who are to undergo the ceremony. 

 The exact nature of this is not known, except that it consists of super- 

 stitious rites, of dances representing the various pursuits in which 

 men are engaged, of sharn-fights, and trials designed to prove the self- 

 possession, courage, and endurance of the neophytes. It is certain, 

 however, that there is some variation in the details of the ceremony, 

 in different places; for among the coast tribes, one of these is the 

 knocking out of an upper front tooth, which is not done at Wel- 

 lington, and farther in the interior. But the nature and object of the 

 institution appear to be every where the same. Its design unques- 

 tionably is, to imprint upon the mind of the young man the rules by 

 which his future life is to be regulated ; and some of these are so 

 striking, and, under the circumstances, so admirable, that one is 

 inclined to ascribe them to some higher state of mental cultivation 

 than now prevails among the natives. Thus, the young men, from 

 the time they are initiated till they are married, are forbidden to 

 approach or speak to a female. They must encamp at a distance 

 from them at night, and if they see one in the way, must make a long 

 detour to avoid her. Mr. Watson told me that he had often been put 

 to great inconvenience in travelling through the woods with a young 

 man for his guide, as such a one could never be induced to approach 

 an encampment where there were any women. The moral intent of 

 this regulation is evident. 



Another rule requires the young men to pay implicit obedience to 

 their elders. As there is no distinction of rank among them, it is 

 evident that some authority of this kind is required to preserve the 

 order and harmony of social intercourse. 



A third regulation restricts the youth to certain articles of diet. 

 They are not allowed to eat fish, or eggs, or the emu, or any of the 

 finer kinds of opossum and kangaroo. In short, their fare is required 

 to be of the coarsest and most meagre description. As they grow 

 older, the restrictions are removed, one after another; but it is not till 

 they have passed the period of middle age that they are entirely un- 



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