128 R. H. MATHEWS. 
~ license allowed between the men and women, whether married 
or single. This liberty is accorded only to those parties who 
would be permitted to marry each other in conformity with the 
tribal laws. This license would not be extended to the novices. 
Taking away the Boys.—When the morning arrives on which 
it has been determined to take the novices away into the bush, 
some of the men leave the camp unobserved by the women a short 
time before daylight, and proceed to the goombo and light the 
weongonyalbil fire. When the day dawns these men sound the 
bullroarer (mudjeegang) somewhere within the sacred ground. 
When this sound is heard in the camp, the men shout in unison 
and the women commence to sing and beat their rugs. All the 
men who have remained at the camp, pick up each a burning 
stick from their camp fires, and run in single file into the Burbung; 
the leader entering it by stepping over the embankment and is 
followed by all the rest. They dance round inside the ring a short 
time, waving their fiery sticks in the air, shouting and naming 
places in their ngoorumbang, after which they return to their 
camps, and throw the burning sticks into the fires from which 
they have been taken. 
The women and children, all quite naked, are now mustered 
out of the entire camp, and are brought close to the Burbung, the 
women of each tribe keeping by themselves, and sit down on the 
side which faces in the direction of their respective districts. 
The mothers of the novices are in the front, close to the embank- 
ment bounding the ring, the other women being behind them. 
The mothers are painted on the face and chest with marks of red 
ochre and pipeclay, the relatives of the boys and other women 
being also painted. : 
The youths who form the subject of the ceremony are DOW ~ 
separated from the rest, and each is taken charge of by the guardian — : 
(goomahn ), who has been selected for this duty. These men are 
the brothers actual or tribal, of the women from among whom 
the novices could, when old enough, obtain a wife in accordanc®@ 
with the tribal laws. These guardians do not for the present | PY 
