ABORIGINAL BORA. 105 



were made to pass through an ordeal of pain, but there was no 

 knocking out of a tooth, nor was the revolting custom above 

 mentioned practised by the blacks of that locality. — Anthr. Jour., 

 VII., p. 255. Kamilaroi and Other Australian Languages, p. 156. 



I will now state how I obtained the information respecting 

 the Bora which forms the subject of this paper. Early in the 

 present year I heard that the blacks were mustering at Gundabloui 

 near Mogil Mogil, for the purpose of holding a Bora, and as I was 

 very busy at home, and could not possibly get away to visit the 

 place myself, I wrote to Mr. J. T. Crawley, the Police Officer 

 stationed at Mogil Mogil, fifteen miles from Gundabloui, who is 

 well acquainted with the blacks of that district, and in whom I 

 knew I could place entire confidence, and asked him to collect the 

 fullest details he could. I told him all the points on which I 

 wanted information, and gave him an outline of the procedure at 

 Boras generally. I also gave him exhaustive directions how to 

 proceeed in collecting the details. 



This gentleman set about the duty in an enthusiastic manner, 

 and wrote to me from time to time, communicating the results of 

 his observations and enquiries ; and in my replies I drew his 

 attention to any points requiring further investigation. In one 

 of his letters he says : — " Although the blacks were very reluctant 

 and reticent at first, they soon put faith in me, and made me 

 promise that any information they gave me would not be divulged to 

 local people or be published in local papers. One would be reticent 

 if another were present, so I had to question them separately and 

 unknown to each other, and in this way I found that one cor- 

 roborated the other, which gave me full confidence in the truth 

 of their statements." In another letter he says : " they would 

 not permit me to be present during their ceremonies at the sacred 

 circle, for it was guarded day and night in turns, but as soon as 

 the ground was abandoned, I visited it, and took full descriptions 

 and made sketches of everything on it." A large quantity of 

 correspondence passed between myself and Mr. Crawley, who 

 displayed great zeal and industry in collecting details relating to 



