Beatty—The St. George , or Mummers’, Plays. 303 
Mr. Ei. S', Parker saw the natives of Laddon perform the 
dance of separated spirits. This does not seem to be an initia¬ 
tion rite, hut its similarity is instructive. 
“Holding houghs in each hand, which were waved in unison 
alternately over each shoulder, and dancing for some time in 
lines and semicircles, at length they gradually gathered into a 
compact, circular body; then, slowly sinking to the ground 
and burying their heads under the boughs',' they represented, 
according to the statement of the old native 'who was master 
of the ceremonies, the approach of death, and in the perfectly 
still and motionless posture they maintained for some time the 
state of death itself. Then the old man, breaking suddenly 
into a new dance, and waving furiously his houghs over the 
prostrate mass, gave them the word, and suddenly springing 
to their feet, they joined him in his rejoicings, This was ex¬ 
plained to me as intended to represent the revival of the soul 
after death/ 71 
A still earlier observer confirms these accounts in his chap¬ 
ter on the ceremonies, 1 2 Early in the morning the boys are 
seized from behind and a bandage is fastened over the eyes of 
each. They a[re then led half a mile away from the women 
and children, when they are laid on the ground and covered 
with a cloak, or skin, so as not to see what is passing among 
the adults, who proceed with the ceremony. Three of the per¬ 
formers limp and groan, until they arrive opposite one of the 
boys, upon whom they seize. The individual seized jumps up 
and i*uns off at full speed, but he is caught and laid down near 
the other boys'. He is now supposed to be in a state of en¬ 
chantment from which he is aroused by being lifted up by the 
ears, at the same time that loud noises are made into them. 
In another passage 3 the author describes the 1 pretended trance 
of the initiates, and their “disenchantment, 77 
These Australian ceremonies may be illustrated from Lori- 
1 E. S'. Parker, “The Aborigines of Australia,” 1854. Cited by R. 
Brough Smyth, “The Aborigines of Victoria,” vol. 1, p. 167. 
2 E. J. Eyre, “Discoveries in Central Australia,” 2 vols., 1845; vol. 2* 
pp. 333-334. 
s L. c., pp. 336-339. 
