572 MATHEWS—THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. [Oct. 5, 
liberties to which I have referred probably had their archetype in 
the libidinous orgies which took place when a bevy of strange 
females was secured. The captors would make indiscriminate use 
of the women for some little time, until they had leisure to effect 
an individual distribution of them. This would take place as soon 
as the totems of the women and other particulars were ascertained. 
At the present day, when a woman is allotted to a man as his wife, 
she must first submit to copulation by a number of men, whose 
intercourse with her at other times would be a serious offense. 
While the Zooringa/ are marching off with the novices in their 
custody, two men called duddendelar rush out of the scrub and each 
of them throws a boomerang at the aggressors. ‘They then retreat 
hastily and go away to fetch the deegay, whose participation in the 
ceremony practically amounts to the rescue of the novices from the 
kooringal. ‘This is suggestive of a time when a number of small 
tribes, occupying a large area, had been more or less friendly and 
helped each other against a common foe. If an onslaught were 
made upon any of these tribes such of the men who escaped would 
seek the protection and intervention of some of their allies who 
might be powerful enough to punish the offenders and liberate their 
sons. Such a rescue may be symbolized by the interference of the 
beegay at the present time, and the subsequent return of the novices 
to the ¢hurrawonga camp during the Bora. 
All the tribes who arrived in early times were probably small 
and lived in constant fear of surprisals by the people around them, 
so that it would be unwise for them to confide the details of their 
sacred ceremonies to the women, who might at any time be carried 
off by conquerors and the secrets exacted from them by coercion. 
This may have given rise to the existing custom of placing a cov- 
ering over the women when the youths are being taken away. 
It is a reasonable assumption that from the earliest period each 
band of adventurers brought certain rites with them. Owing toa 
superstitious adherence to former patriarchal customs, especially 
strong in all primitive peoples, we would not expect to find that 
any new system of initiation would altogether abrogate and super- 
sede the older type, but would be blent or incorporated with it. 
I am inclined to think that the plucking out of the hair—observed 
among the Narrinyeri and other tribes of South Australia, a part 
of the Barkunjee in New South Wales and among some of the Vic- 
torian tribes—has been handed down from the original inhabitants, 
