644 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
About a mile west of the Adelaide Itiver railway station are several 
mounds where Awarra have been buried, and there is a Larrakka 
burving-place not far from the Port Darwin cemetery. A belief in a 
spiritual existence was perceptible ; a happy life seemed to be associated 
with it, but 1 could gather nothing further concerning it. This was 
apart from any ideas originating from the teachings of the Jesuit 
Fathers. I was surprised to observe traces of the oriental superstitiou, 
“Evil eye.” 
Ceremony of Circumcision nmonq the Aggrah Lindi. — To perform 
the rite, Emu, the W dinar headman, travelled with some 200 
Larrakka men, women, and children 125 miles to Burrundi, the 
journey occupying about a month ; but the Larrakka spent a fortnight 
of the time at Glencoe cattle station fencing, heedless of the 
impatience of the Aggrakundi. I was given to understand by 
Manuel, the headman of the Aggrakundi, that the boy had been sent 
to the W ulnar headman and remained in his charge, hut I was 
unable definitely to learn when and where he was handed over; my 
impression is that it was at the entry upon the Aggrakundi territory, 
of which the northern boundary is near Glencoe. 
I was present at the ceremony, which was held near Burrundi, at 
a time when I happened to be at the township. Taken to the camp 
at sunset, I saw the boy, who was about twelve years of age, and who 
exhibited none of the fear that the Larrakka boys entertain at the 
first step towards being made men, seated in state under a tree, his 
bodv and face adorned with pipeclay, a white fillet encircling bis 
head, from which hung on either side a few inches of fibre string 
ending in a fluffy ball, similar balls hanging from bands around the 
upper arm. His long rough hair was red, like his body, with ochre. 
A corrobborie was then held, the Larrakka being the performers. 
It took the form of a drama, and the admiration of the Aggrakundi 
at the representation was unbounded. The story played was a true 
one, of a Larrakka hoy of three or four years of age who had strayed 
along the beach and was lost. The boy (LTierdwoa) who represented 
the child wandered here and there, at times lying down in very 
weariness, and then, although exhausted, again striving to find his 
people. They on their part seek him in one direction and another, 
and the incidents of the day are reproduced — here they see an emu, 
there, a snake, at another place a kangaroo has crossed, until at last 
they find the dead body of the child. A blaekfellow mimicked the 
appearance, the cry, and gait of the emu to perfection; the siiake, for 
a human being, wriggled and darted wonderfully here and there as it 
was headed off, until it bounded into the bushes, and the kangaroo 
was seen hopping in the distance. The ever-present power of Evil was 
there, now worming himself along the ground, anon towering aloft in 
exultation ; skurrying rapidly along, his body almost touching the 
earth, lying down, rolling, grovelling. While the corrobborie proceeded 
the women and girls, all nude, sat in a semi-circle aiid made the familiar 
music, singing the weird chant and producing an accompaniment by 
slapping their hands upon the thigh in admirable rhythm. 
Before sunrise the next morning I was awakened by a lad, and 
accompanying him to the ground I found the boy upon whom the rite 
was to be performed was still in the same place, two or three of the 
men coaching and encouraging him. In a few moments Emu, Manuel, 
