630 MATHEWS—SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. [Oct. 5, 
objects, as well as the principal places in their hunting grounds, 
have a secret name by which they are spoken of among the initi- 
ated, in addition to the general nomenclature with which the 
women and children are familiar. After the novitiates have passed 
through the final stages of the inaugural rites, the instruction thus 
briefly outlined is continued for many years at the single men’s 
camp, at which the catechumens have now the right to be present. 
In the portion of South Australia where subincision is not prac- 
ticed the scarring takes place some time after the boys recover from 
the effects of circumcision. And in the districts where depilation 
is the initiatory rite, as in the Narrinyeri and adjacent tribes, the 
scarring succeeds that ceremony. 
It not infrequently happens that after a batch of novices are cir- 
cumcised, as described in earlier pages, and before the tribes dis- 
perse, such of the young men present who have passed through 
that ordeal at a previous meeting, and have attained a sufficient 
age, are seized by direction of the head-men and the rite of sub- 
incision performed upon them. This is done to save the delay and 
trouble of mustering the people again for the latter ceremony, in 
cases where the graduates are few in number. 
It may be stated that the women, girls and little boys are forever 
afterward forbidden to go near any of the localities where the rites of 
circumcision, subincision or scarring have been carried out, these 
spots being rigorously tabooed to the uninitiated. This taboo ex- 
tends to the initiated of a lower degree ; for example, a circum- 
cised youth could not enter upon a place where subincision had 
been performed, and so on. 
Certain restrictions as to the food to be eaten by the novices at 
different periods of their course of instruction have to be com- 
plied with, in accordance with ancient custom, under the super- 
vision of the old men. 
INITIATION OF WOMEN. 
It may be stated generally that among all Australian tribes every 
girl on attaining puberty is violated, either in a natural way or by 
artificial means, before she is permitted to have a husband ; this is 
a tribal law from which there is no escape. Among the people 
treated of in this paper it is found that certain mutilations are per- 
formed upon the young women by which the vaginal orifice is per- 
manently enlarged. 
