336 R. H. MATHEWS. 



her pudenda?. When the novice has passed through this 

 ordeal she is called ngurramdurragurk, an initiated 

 woman, and may be claimed in marriage by the man to 

 whom she was assigned from her childhood. 



Among the Yota-yota and adjoining tribes on the Murray 

 River, the ceremony of ''making young women" is called 

 dhuddiwai, and may be described shortly as follows : When 

 a girl reaches puberty she is taken away some distance 

 from the camp by an old female relative. A moderately 

 large fire is lit, and when it burns quite down, the embers 

 and ashes are scraped off. Green leaves are then strewn 

 thickly upon this warm ground, and the girl is placed sit- 

 ting on top of the leaves until she is clean, being looked 

 after by the old women who are there. The first flux is 

 called durguggimuty, but a woman during her monthly 

 period at any time thereafter is called gartyibulla. When 

 the novice passes through this ceremony she is known as 

 dhuddiwai, and is painted like the other women of the tribe. 



On the Mitta Mitta and Ovens Rivers the following is a 

 brief outline of the procedure as told to me by an old native: 

 At the first appearance of puberty, the girl is taken out of 

 the camp by some old women, and her body is anointed all 

 over with opossum fat and ground charcoal. The fresh 

 skin of a ring-tail opossum is procured and cut into very 

 narrow strips. These strands, with the fur remaining upon 

 them, are then twisted until they become small, rounded 

 strings, resembling cords. The arms of the girl, both above 

 and below the elbow, are then bandaged with a few coils 

 of this string. She is now lifted into the fork of a sapling 

 or tree, from six to eight feet above the ground. 



A fire is lighted at the butt of the tree, on the windward 

 side of it, and a number of green boughs laid upon it. 

 Presently a dense smoke is produced, which ascends up 

 around the girl, the quantity of fume being regulated so 



