332 R. H. MATHEWS. 



boughs, and run past where the novices are lying, shaking 

 and rustling the boughs, thumping their feet on the ground, 

 and uttering humming sounds in imitation of the roaring 

 of the wind. If any small saplings are growing near, they 

 are snapped off with a crash by some of the men. This 

 rushing past may be repeated several times, to make the 

 lads believe a violent tornado is blowing. When the "storm" 

 ceases, men and boys seek their night's repose, but the 

 latter are awakened at short intervals, as before. 



On the following day the depilation of the graduates is 

 commenced. The boys are carried out of the yard and 

 placed on their backs on couches of green bushes. They 

 are so worn out by having been kept awake so long that 

 they are in a state of semi-slumber and take but little 

 notice of what is clone to them. A man sits down beside 

 each novice and begins pulling out the hair from the pubes, 

 under the arms and the incipient beard. When one man 

 becomes tired he is replaced by another ; or two men may 

 be employed on the same youth. Beeswax or gum is used 

 upon the ends of the fingers to facilitate catching the hair, 

 which is pulled out singly. The men of the novitiate's own 

 tribe do not take part in the hair-plucking operation — this 

 duty devolving upon the men of some of the strange tribes 

 present. The pluckers must be men who have been initiated 

 in the same way at previous gatherings, and are the poten- 

 tial brothers-in-law of the respective novices who are 

 assigned to them. The youth is not allowed to see the face 

 of the man who pulls out his hair, but must keep his eyes 

 closed. 



Some of the headmen of each tribe sit on the ground near 

 by directing the proceedings, and a bullroarer, bumbir- 

 bumblr, is sounded in the vicinity. The hair pulled out of 

 each youth is kept carefully by itself, and is given into the 

 charge of one of his relatives, in the same way that the 



