116 R. H. MATHEWS. 



At the main camp during the early part of nearly every night, 

 one of the masters of the ceremonies would go alone into the bush 

 a short distance from the camp, and for about two hours would 

 sound a wooden instrument which these blacks call murrawan^ 

 which is supposed to represent the voice of Durramoolan,* their 

 native name for the evil spirit, who rules in the night. 



During the time the instrument referred to was being sounded 

 in the adjacent forest, the men of the tribes would dance, yell, and 

 make hideous noises, and all the gins would sing in a monotonous 

 chant, and beat time; those of each tribe singing their own 

 peculiar song. The gins sat down in a line on one side of the 

 camp fire, having on their laps a piece of thin dry bark with a 

 cloth thrown over it, on which they beat time with both hands. 

 Such of the old men who were too infirm to dance, also beat time 

 with two boomerangs or time sticks, one in each hand. The dancers 

 were on the other side of the fire, retiring into the darkness, or 

 advancing to the light as the sentiment seemed to require. The 

 various contingents danced alternately, being in turn performers 

 and audience. The uninitiated youths did not take part in these 

 dances, but will be allowed to dance with the men at the next 

 Bora they go to. These performances were gone through for the 

 instruction as well as the amusement of the novices. 



The ceremonies I have been describing were gone through from 

 day to day with slight variations, for upwards of three weeks. At 



* Howitt says: — "Daramulun was not everywhere thought to be a 

 malevolent spirit, but he was dreaded as one who could severely punish 

 the trespasses committed against their tribal ordinances. He, it is said, 

 instituted the ceremonies of the initiation of youths ; he made the original 

 mudji, (bull-roarer) and the noise made by it is the voice of Daramulun." 

 — Anthr. Journ. xin., p. 192 and 446. 



Wyndham states, that among the blacks of the western parts of New 

 England, " the principal man who presided over the Bora personated the 

 Devil, and he made a most terrific noise with a bull-roarer." — Jour. Roy. 

 Soc, N.S.W., xxiii., p. 38. 



Green way says : — " Among the Kamilaroi tribes about Bundarra, Turra- 

 mulan is represented at the Bora by an old man learned in all the laws 

 and traditions, rites and ceremonies, and assumes to be endowed with 

 supernatural powers." — Anthr. Jour., vn., p. 243. 



