ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA. 307 



by Europeans for very many years, nothing at all has 

 hitherto been done to obtain a comprehensive account of 

 the initiation ceremonies of the native tribes who were 

 formerly spread over it. The aboriginal languages of the 

 people had been equally neglected until I undertook the 

 congenial task of studying and expounding their gram- 

 matical structure. 1 The particulars herein reported were 

 told to me by native men who had passed through the 

 ceremonies. 



When it has been determined to call the people together 

 for the purpose of inaugurating the youths of the tribes 

 into the privileges and duties of manhood, messengers are 

 despatched to the different sections of the community, 

 informing them of the time and place of the intended 

 gathering. A suitable camping ground capable of accom- 

 modating all the tribes who are expected to be present, is 

 selected near some river, creek or lagoon, in a part of the 

 tribe's domain in which there is sufficient game to furnish 

 food for all the people during the continuance of the cere- 

 monies. In the vicinity of this main encampment, a circular 

 space, known as the gu-ang'-a, is cleared of all timber and 

 grass, and the soil scraped off the surface in making it level 

 is used to form a low mound or embankment around its 

 outer margin. 



When a messenger arrives near the camp to which he 

 has been sent, he waits till late in the afternoon, because 

 at that time the men have usually returned from their 

 day's hunting, and then approaches the single men's quarters 

 close to which he sits down. Some of the people go to him 

 and bring him into the ngulubul, where the headmen of the 

 tribe are then brought together. The messenger now states 

 where he has come from and produces the muddyigang or 



1 " The Aboriginal Languages of Victoria," Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S.Wales, 

 Vol. xxxvi., pp. 71 - 106. 



