& 
THE BURBUNG OR INITIATION CEREMONY. 129 
take a prominent part in the proceedings, but get some of their 
brothers, who may be called their assistants or surrogates, to act 
for them until after the women have been covered up. 
Each novice’s female relatives, consisting perhaps of one of his 
sisters and a sister of the guardian, now paint him red all over 
his body and limbs, and ornament his hair with feathers. During 
the progress of the painting of the novices, some of the men cut 
green boughs for use in covering the women presently, and a 
number of rugs and blankets are gathered throughout the camp 
for the same purpose. 
The men are sitting down by themselves, in a state of nudity, 
a hundred yards away, and as soon as the novices are painted 
they are taken by their mothers towards where the men are sitting. 
When the men see the novices and their mothers coming, they go 
and meet them, and the latter run back to the camp followed by 
the men, who now take charge of the novices. Each group of 
boys is then taken by their male friends to the men belonging 
toa neighbouring tribe, who invest each novice with a man’s 
attire, consisting of a belt or girdle round the waist, to which are 
attached four tails or kilts; a headband ; and a band or armlet 
round each arm between the elbow and the shoulder. The group 
of novices are then taken back to their friends, and the men who 
had invested them in their regalia now take their own group of 
novices to the men of another tribe to have them dressed in a 
similar manner. 
To make this matter more easily understood it may be supposed 
that the tribes from Hay, Narrandera, Gundagai, and Hillston 
are present. The novices of the Hay tribe, for example, would 
be invested in the garb of manhood by the Narrandera men ; the 
Narrandera boys by the Gundagai men; the Gundagai novices 
Would be dressed by the Hillston men; and the Hillston boys by 
- the Hay men. That is to say, the novices belonging to one tribe 
a 
*“The Burbung of the Wiradthuri Tribes.”—Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 
<<" 308. “The Burbung of the New England Tribes.”—Proc. fRoy. 
Victoria, rx., N.S., 124, 
T~Aug.4, 1897, 
