1900.] MATHEWS—SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 625 
others it is buried in sand or otherwise dealt with, according to 
the custom of the tribe in whose country the rite is carried out. 
When all the subjects have been operated upon, they are placed 
standing beside their guardians, while two men sound bullroarers in 
their presence. Some armed warriors now advance in a menacing 
attitude and threaten the boys in fierce loud tones that if ever they 
divulge any part of the secret ceremonies to the women or to the 
uncircumcised, they will be punished with immediate death. About 
noon human blood is sprinkled over the bodies of the novitiates, and 
they are kept near the place where they were circumcised during 
the remainder of the day. 
All the ceremonies being now at an end, toward evening there is 
another mock quarrel, and during the ensuing night the men of 
each tribe lend their wives to the men of the other tribes present ; 
this privilege, however, is restricted to individuals belonging to the 
proper intermarrying divisions, and to men who have passed the 
prescribed initiatory rites. The following morning all the visiting 
tribes disperse and start on their return journey to their own hunt- 
ing grounds, taking their respective novices with them. 
Each tribe takes charge of its own novices, who are kept under 
the control of their sponsors after their return to their own country. 
They are taken away to a camp in the bush until their wounds are 
healed, during which period they must not be seen by women, and 
are restricted to certain kinds of food, in accordance with the direc- 
tions of the old men. Several fires are now lighted to the windward 
of the graduates, so that they may be enveloped in a dense smoke, 
after which they are brought back by their guardians to a place pre- 
viously arranged, where they are met by their mothers and female 
relatives, and are then taken to a camp near the single men’s 
quarters. At the next meeting of the tribes for initiation purposes 
these young men will be permitted to be present at all the secret 
ceremonies which may take place. 
C. Provis reports that ‘‘among the natives of Fowler’s Bay, 
South Australia, after the boys were circumcised their hair was 
daubed with grease and clay and rolled into several divisions like 
rat’s tails. A rounded pad composed of emu feathers, grease, clay 
and human excrement was then placed on top of the head and all 
the hair brought up over it and securely bound in its place.’”* 
1 Folklore, Manners, etc., of South Australian Aborigines (Adelaide, 1879), 
pp- 99, 100, 
