INITIATION CEREMONIES OF THE ABORIGINES OF PORT STEPHENS. 117 



who is an initiate, carries with him as symbols of authority the 

 bullroarer (goonanduckyer), the message-stick, some tails and 

 pieces of colourless stone. 1 The goonduckyer and message-stick 

 must never be seen by a women or an uninitiated person, and I 

 have been assured that instant death would overtake a female or 

 boy unfortunate enough to see one of these implements. 2 



When a messenger approaches a camp, he swings the goonan- 

 duckyer so that it may be heard by some of the older men, who 

 immediately recognise the significance of the sound as soon as they 

 hear it, and coming out of their camp they meet the messenger 

 and conduct him into the camp, where he is entertained until the 

 following day, when a winggerah is held to which his invitation 

 is delivered. 



If the invitation is, as usual, accepted, the whole tribe gets 

 ready for the march, the women and boys however, being kept in 

 ignorance of the object of the journey. When the tribe arrives 

 near the ground they halt, and the initiates proceed to paint their 

 bodies in squares and circles with white and red colours, and go 

 to the goonambung ring, which they enter in Indian file, and 

 marching round take their seats on the wall, in such a position 

 that they look towards the burri or country whence they have come. 



Each man, who has a son to be initiated, bears a blotch of red 

 ochre on his forehead, and by this means they indicate the number 

 of youths they have brought to be initiated. 3 



The tribe which has issued the invitation are then summoned 

 by the swinging of the goonanduckyer, at the sound of which they 

 form in single file and march into the goonambung, thus making 

 themselves known to the new arrivals, who arise and march to 

 the boolbung circle, each carrying a small branch or bough of a 

 tree in each hand. Here they dance with the women of the tribe 

 to whom the ground belongs, and at the conclusion of it the men 

 belonging to that tribe go into the ring and salute the newly 



1 Usually crystalline quartz. 



2 This appears to apply onlv to a message-stick relating to the Keeparra. 



3 Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic, ix.,"N.S., 124. 



