ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA. 313 



44 We are unable to take these youths through the bush and 

 provide food for them. Our great-grand-fathers used to go 

 about in canoes on the dry land as easily as on the water ; 

 perhaps they will come and help us." Just then a man, a 

 little distance off, gently swings a bullroarer, so that its 

 intermittent sounds apparently just die away upon their 

 ears. The eldest man says to the others, " That is the 

 distant ripple of the paddle of my father's father's large 

 canoe ; let us go and meet him and he will take us any- 

 where we wish to go." 



They now assist the boys to rise, and all of them go for- 

 ward for some distance, when they encounter the men who 

 had gone away from them a little while previously. The 

 old men pretend to be very much surprised at this opportune 

 and unexpected meeting ; and amid much apparent rejoicing 

 the novices are given into the care of the same guardians 

 who had charge of them before. It should be explained 

 here that when the men went away ahead, as stated above, 

 it was for the purpose of giving them time to paint their 

 bodies and get their weapons and other belongings together, 

 to enable them to perform their share of the role in the bush. 



Men and boys now journey on till they come to a creek 

 or waterhole where they intend to camp. A bough yard 

 of a crescent shape is made, and leaves strewn upon the 

 ground within it, on which the novices are placed sitting, 

 with their heads bowed ; and a fire is lit to keep them 

 warm. If a novice wants anything he is not allowed to 

 ask for it, but must make a sign to the guardian who has 

 charge of him. The men set to work and dig several lttle 

 holes, papal' wa, about the size of a wash-basin, and bend 

 a small green rod, with some leaves attached, over each 

 hole. The ends of the rod are inserted in opposite sides of 

 the hole, the rod forming a vertical arch, the ceutre of 

 which is a few inches above the level of the surrounding 



