CEREMONY OF WHAREPIN. 
337 
the Moorunde natives, and the Nar-wij-jerook tribe 
described in Chapter II. p. 220. On that occasion, 
there were three Moorunde natives to be operated 
upon. As soon as the ceremonial of the meeting of 
the tribes had been gone through, as already de- 
scribed, the Nar-wij-jerook natives retired about a 
hundred yards, and sat down on the ground, the 
Moorunde people remaining standing. The three 
spears which had little nets attached to them, and which 
had been brought down by the Nar- wij-jerooks, were 
now advanced in front of that tribe, still seated and 
stuck in a row in the ground. Three men then got 
up and seated themselves at the foot of the three 
spears, with their legs crossed. Two other natives 
then went over to the Moorunde people, to where the 
three novices stood shaking and trembling, like 
criminals waiting for their punishment, seizing them 
by the legs and shoulders, and carefully lifting them 
from the ground, they carried each in turn, and 
laid them on their backs at full length upon green 
boughs, spread upon the ground in front of the 
three men sitting by the spears, so that the head of 
each rested on the lap of one of the three. From 
the moment of their being seized, they resolutely 
closed their eyes, and pretended to be in a deep 
trance until the whole was over. When all three 
novices had been laid in their proper position, cloaks 
were thrown over them, but leaving the face ex- 
posed, and a Nar-wij-jerook coming to the side of 
each, carefully lifted up a portion of the covering 
VOL. II. 
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