THE BURBUNG OR INITIATION CEREMONY. 139 
Some time’before daylight the following morning all the people 
are roused out of their slumbers by the old men.’ The men and 
boys are divided into a number of little mobs, each mob marching 
away from the ngoorang or main camp in different directions, for 
a distance of 100 or 150 yards. It is not necessary that each 
section should go the same distance from the ngoorang; this matter 
is regulated by the suitability of the ground for camping purposes. 
The novices, each being accompanied by his guardian, are taken 
away in these groups, some going with one group and some with 
another. Care is taken, however, that every novice is taken 
away from the ngoorang in the direction opposite to that in which 
his own country is situated. Some of the mobs would, perhaps, 
consist of men only, owing to their being no novices from the 
district located in the contrary direction. Each of the groups 
light a fire at their respective camping places, which are called 
biinbitl, where they remain till after daylight, and have breakfast 
there, 
After the morning meal has been disposed of, all the little mobs 
re-unite, and clear another corroboree ground contiguous to the 
one they prepared the previous evening. The kooringal then 
select some animal as the subject of the play, and when all is 
ready the novices are permitted to look at the performance. Their 
heads are then bent down as before, and they are taken back to 
their respective biinbitls from which they have just come, where 
they remain with their guardians during the day. The novices 
are called budthandooree during their sojourn at the biinbil camps. 
The kooringal then go out into the bush hunting, in order to 
provide food for the novices and guardians, as well as for them- 
selves. On their return to the camp in the afternoon some of the 
game caught during the day is cooked and given to the novices. 
The bones and sinews are taken out of the meat which is prepared 
for them, and some of the old men go round to see that their food 
is dressed according to rule. 
1 “The Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of the Upper Lachlan.” 
—Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. Aust. (Q) xt. 169. 
