ABORIGINES OF THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF N. S. WALES. 279 



was skinned, the pelt being then cut into strips and given to the 

 principal men present at the gathering. 



Early next day the boys are taken a little way from the bun- 

 numbeal, and are shown a colossal horizontal image of Dhara- 

 moolan formed by heaping up the loose earth into human shape — 

 his wife, on a smaller scale, lying near him. After that, one of 

 the front upper incisors is punched out of each novice in succession. 

 As the tooth is held up to public view, the men shout the names 

 of remarkable places in the novice's country, and the totems of 

 his family. The tooth is then handed to one of the boy's relatives 

 who attaches it to his girdle. That evening at the camp, some of 

 the old men, the bards of the tribe, chant Dharamoolan's songs, 

 the words of which are as follows : — 



1. Dhurram'ooloon galay wirrabroo ganga 



Bagoon-bana goo-ranana mamarana. 



2. Dhurram'oolunba nganboan'ya gowine mirreng'ga. 



3. Ngalal'bo wallool'ma jil'ly jil'leen may ganga. 



The following morning the bullroarers are shown to the novices, 

 who are at the same time cautioned against revealing what they 

 have seen and been taught, during their sojourn in the bush. 



We must now go back to the morning the boys were mustered, 

 and marched away. Immediately after their departure, the men 

 who had charge of the women set them at liberty, and the camp 

 was shifted to another locality, perhaps some miles distant. The 

 mothers of the novices, and the principal old women of the tribe, 

 are collectively known asyanniwa, and have a place to themselves 

 called yanniwa-dhoogan, alongside the main camp. Since the 

 morning on which their sons were taken from them, these women 

 have carried pieces of burning bark, dhung'gawa,, in their hands. 

 Every morning at daylight, and every evening at dusk, the bull- 

 roarer, mooroonga, is sounded by a man in close proximity, which 

 is the signal for the yanniwa to sing the customary songs, called 

 mir'rilga. While so employed they wave the burning dhungga, 

 towards the east in the morning and towards the west in the 

 evening. The following are specimens of these songs, taken down 

 by us from the lips of some of the old women : — 



