ioS 
and taken it away.” They had flown into the sky, and now form 
the dark patch in the brightest part of the sky (Milky Way). 
An account of the use of these boards was related to the writer 
by a very trustworthy aboriginal at Boulder, as follows : — When 
a young man is initiated, a board about 18 inches long is given 
to him and afterwards a longer one, and then one four feet, and 
then still longer boards. During the initiation the large boards 
are heated over a fire and are laid on the body of the young 
man, chiefly upon the chest and forehead, blistering the skin 
severely and taking the hair off. At ordinary corrobborees a 
break-wind or screen of scrub is made and the long boards are 
brought out after the women have covered up their heads or 
have gone away. The blacks then sing about its being so secret 
from women, and that the boards are not to be broken or burnt. 
The writer has seen several young men with freshly-healed burns 
of the character described, which evidently bore out the truthful- 
ness of the account. The ordeal is probably a test of endurance. 
According to another aboriginal’s account, “ When a young man 
has completed his initiation he is given one of the smaller boards, 
and he hides it away as safely as he can and uses it as occasion 
may require at corroborees. When a tribe moves its head- 
quarters the very long boards are taken to the new place in charge 
of some of the tribe, one or two days’ journey ahead of the others, 
for the sake of privacy, for the long line of stragglers in the rear 
of a column would prevent secrecy being maintained regarding 
the boards.” The use of the boards at a corroboree is thus 
described by another black : -When there is a large corroboree 
many fires are lighted, and the boards are carried horizontally 
by two black fellows, each one holding an end, the boards behind 
being each several paces distant from each other, and they begin 
their dance at the most distant fire, passing in a winding course 
between the fires as they advance. Another way is for the dancer 
to hold the board upright behind him, the end resting on his 
waist belt, or else the board is thrust inside the belt and kept 
poised W’thout being held while the posturing and trembling of 
the dancer is being made. Another arrangement of a corroboree 
at the Boulder is shown in figure 24. It was drawn for the 
writer by an aboriginal named Kangaroo. 
The writer was unable to induce the aboriginals to produce 
their own articles of attire for the purpose of photographing them 
in dancing array, but after he had acquired the necessary articles 
some of them decorated themselves specially with them and 
exhibited several times the style of the dance (figures 19 to 21 
are from photographs taken on these occasions, Nos. 1 and 2 
showing the long boards carried horizontally each by two aborigines 
upon cross sticks. These are stuck into the belt or hair, or held 
in the hand or mouth, according to the fancy of the dancer. 
Figures 19 and 20 show the smaller boards only. The horizontal 
