310 R. H. MATHEWS. 



camp at some convenient spot, where they are painted and 

 invested with the brow-band, waist-belt and apron. Strings 

 made by cutting narrow strips of the skin of the ring- tail 

 opossum, with the fur on, and twisted, are bound round the 

 biceps and fore-arms of the novices. It is believed that 

 this binding causes the muscles of the arms to develop. 

 A guardian is now assigned to each boy. Such guardian is 

 one of the brothers, actual or titular, of the women from 

 among whom the novice could obtain a wife in accordance 

 with the laws of the tribe. 



The novices are next conducted into the guatiga, where 

 they stand with their heads bowed, surrounded by a cordon 

 of men. Before the boys are taken into the ring, each 

 mother secures a portion of her son's apron, ngore, and 

 swings it round her head as she gesticulates and jumps about. 

 A large fire, which has been burning in the guanga all night, 

 has reduced itself to a heap of hot embers and ashes. The 

 mothers of the novices, and all the other women, with the 

 children, are also gathered up a little way from the ring, 

 where they are made to lie down, and are covered with 

 bushes, grass or rugs. A sufficient number of men are 

 appointed to keep guard over them, so that they may see 

 nothing of the next performance. 



A number of men have provided themselves with green 

 boughs having a dense foliage and a stem about two or 

 three feet in length. They catch hold of these boughs by 

 the stem and hold them up over the novices where they are 

 standing in the guanga, thus forming a thick leafy canopy 

 above their heads. At a given signal from the chiefs, a 

 contingent of active men selected from every tribe present, 

 then pick up bark shovels, biinduvra, shaped something like 

 a tennis racket, and commence throwing the hot ashes from 

 the fire above referred to, over the bough canopy. The 

 boys underneath are surging round and round in a compact 



