130 R. H. MATHEWS. 
are always dressed in the regalia of a man by the men of one of 
the other tribes present at the general Burbung gathering. 
When these decorations have been completed, each novice is 
taken by his friends into the ring, and is placed sitting down on 
a piece of bark laid on the embankment forming the boundary. 
All the novices belonging to each tribe are placed in a row on the 
side of the ring which is nearest their own ngoorumbang. There 
would therefore be as many groups of boys as there were tribes 
present, assuming that each tribe had brought some novices for 
the purpose of initiation. One of the sisters of the man who has 
been appointed guardian to the novice now enters the ring, and 
places a green leaf in the boy’s mouth, after which she squirts 
pipe-clay out of her mouth into his face, and then retires among 
the other women. Each novice is treated in a similar manner by 
his guardian’s sister. 
The selection of the site to which the women will remove the 
camp! after the boys are taken away is the next business to be 
disposed of. Two old headmen enter the Burbung, one on each 
side, facing each other. One of them walks a few paces, and 
sticks his spear into the ground, and sitting down, says, “ This 
would be a good place for the thurrawonga camp,” at the same 
time mentioning the name of the locality. The other man then 
advances a few steps, and sticking his spear into the ground, sits 
down and calls out the name of another place which he thinks 
would bea better site for the new camp. . Then the first man goes 
on a little way farther, and goes through the same deportment, 
and names another locality. Perhaps half a dozen different places 
may be suggested in this way, until one of them mentions the 
name of a place which they both approve of. Then the other old 
man approaches and sits down beside him, and both of them call 
out the name of the locality. This finally settles the matter, and 
the two men come out of the ring. 
1 «« The Bora, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kamilaroi Tribe.”—Jourm- 
Anthrop. Inst., Lond., xxv., 327. “The Burbung of the New England 
‘ Tribes.”—Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 1x., N.S., 124. com 
