THE BURBUNG OR INITIATION CEREMONY. 119 
his own people, and on his return he would hand the bunch of 
grass' to the headman, a tail to one of the other headmen, a bunch 
of feathers to another, and soon. The bunch of grass conveys 
the meaning that the party sending it is agreeable to the proposal, 
and that he wishes the initiator to proceed with the preparation 
of the ground. On receiving this reply, the camp would be 
removed next day to the place where it was proposed to hold the 
Burbung, and the men would commence making the ring and 
other parts of the sacred ground. 
The initiator would then send another messenger to the same 
tribe to which the first messenger was sent. On this occasion the 
messenger, who would have another man with him to keep him 
company, would be furnished with a bull-roarer, (mudjeegang 
and several tails (dhullaboolga). On the arrival of this messenger - 
at the camp he was directed to summon, he would be conducted 
to the ngooloobul, where he would hand the bull-roarer to the 
headman, and the tails would be distributed to the men to whom 
they had been sent by the Initiator. The time and place of hold- 
ing the Burbung would also be stated at this meeting. In the 
course of a short time after the arrival of this messenger, all the 
men would pull small green bushes, and having taken one of these 
in each hand, would start away from the ngooloobul in a serpentine 
line, their headman in the lead, and would run into the women’s 
camp, uttering gutteral noises like “ birr! wah!” as they went. 
They would then form into a group in a clear space and dance 
round,’ calling out the names of places in their ngoorumbang, 
after which they would throw down their bushes and break up, 
and walk away to their camps. 
After the evening meal the young men would paint themselves © 
and get up a corroboree in honour of the arrival of the messenger. 
a : 
hoi be the tribe to whom this invitation was sent had not approved of 
acce mn a Burbung at that time, or were for other reasons prevented from — 
back mars! it, they would not give the messenger a bunch of grass to car 
of th th him, and this would be understood by the initiator as an end 
© matter for the present, and nothing more would be done. 
2 
Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 303. 3 Loe. cit., 304. 
