ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA. 317 



secured that morning, as stated, and then inserts the other 

 end of the spear into the mound of ashes, on the side which 

 faces her native country. All the spears thus decorated 

 with ngores, are now standing vertically, or nearly so, in 

 the heap, and the mothers and other near relatives dance 

 and jump around, singing the songs customary on such 

 occasions. 1 



If any man belonging to the party who have charge of 

 the novices in the bush, has occasion to go back to the 

 women's camp on a message or for any other purpose, as 

 soon as he appears in sight two of the women run to meet 

 him, each carrying a reed. spear with the ngore attached. 

 They hold the spear over the man's head and swing it in 

 such a way that the dangling ngore describes a circle all 

 round his head, about a foot distant from it. Then the 

 women run back to the guanga and stand their spears in 

 the mound of ashes as they were before. If there are two 

 or more men they are each saluted in the same way, after 

 which they march up to the camp and explain the business 

 upon which they have come. 



The mothers of the novices eat practically the same kind 

 of food which is given to their sons in the bush, and must 

 remain silent the same as their sons. They sing the pre- 

 scribed songs every morning at dawn and every evening at 

 dusk ; and whilst standing singing they lift burning sticks 

 from off the fire and wave them repeatedly towards the 

 direction in which they suppose the camp of the novices to 

 be situated. The novices, their mothers and their potential 

 wives are all painted alike, according to the pattern of the 

 tribe to which they respectively belong. Each tribe has 

 its own distinguishing style of painting at these ceremonies. 

 The mother of every novice has a woman to look after her 



1 See my 'Aboriginal Songs at Initiation Ceremonies," Queensland 

 Geographical Journal, Vol. xvn., pp. 61-63. 



