316 R. H. MATHEWS. 



part. The outside man at one end of the row hits the ground 

 in front of him forcibly with his bark, and all the men utter 

 a low, rumbling noise and strike the ground in succession. 

 When this " peal" reaches the other end, the outside man 

 there hits the ground with his piece of bark and is followed 

 by the other men back to the original striker. This per- 

 formance is repeated several times backwards and forwards 

 and is intended to represent the rolling of distant thunder. 



Some of the old men address the novices, saying " Your 

 great-grandfathers are coming by and by to take you along 

 in their canoes on the dry land." Presently the booming 

 sound of the bullroarer, muddyigang, is heard and the loud- 

 ness increases till it is quite close. The guardians call out 

 as if addressing some one, " Wait a while ! the lads will get 

 into the canoes directly." Almost immediately the rugs 

 are lifted off the boys' heads, and they are told to look at 

 the men swinging the muddyigangs. Each guardian then 

 says to his novice, " There is your grandfather." The 

 swingers now advance and place a bullroarer under the arm 

 of each novitiate, who is at the same time cautioned against 

 revealing what he has seen and been taught during the 

 sojourn in the bush. Each novice is cautioned by a warrior 

 belonging to one of the strange tribes. 



The reader will now be taken back to that portion of the 

 narrative where we left the women and children covered 

 over at the guanga. As soon as the men and novices get 

 out of sight of the camp, the covering is removed by some 

 old men who have remained in charge of them, and they 

 are set at liberty. The mothers and female relatives of 

 the novices then scrape together all the ashes and coals 

 which had been thrown over the youths in the way described 

 in an earlier page, and form a heap in the centre of the 

 guanga. Each mother has a reed spear on the end of which 

 she fastens the portion of her son's ngore which she had 



