Beatty—The St. George s, or Mummers ’, Plays. 299 
ioal ancestor together with the initiated members of his tribe, 
has the powers and privileges which that mythical ancestor 
won, or which are characteristic of the tribe. This initiation 
further is enacted by a pretended death and resurrection to 
typify the birth of the initiate into the tribe. It is also sym¬ 
bolized by the giving of a new namle, and is indicated by the 
belief that the god takes away the initiate from the camp and 
re-makes him. Hence, when the death and resurrection are 
not enacted, the basal idea is expressed by the expulsion and 
recall of the initiate. These ceremonies often extend to great 
length and are all of a dramatic nature. The interludes are 
dramatic as well as the more sacred portions of them. The 
interludes frequently have representations of mimic quarrels 
or fights 1 very much like the quarrels in the European folk 
ceremonies. 
The Burbung initiation ceremony of the Wiradthuri tribes 
in Australia (as is frequently the case) is an enactment of a 
legend (or legends) “intimately connected with the ceremony.” 
The legend is briefly this: A long time ago there was a 
gigantic and powerful being, something between a black fellow 
and a spirit, called Dhuramootan, who was one of Baiami’s 
people. His voice was awe-inspiring and resembled the rum¬ 
bling of distant thunder. At a certain age the boys of the 
tribe were handed over to him, that he might instruct them in 
the laws and observances of the tribe. When he brought them 
back it was always observed that each boy had lost one of his 
upper incisor teeth, as a visible sign of his initiation. He 
pretended that he killed the boys, cut them up and burned 
them to ashes, and then formed new boys, but each with a tooth 
missing. But some boys were missing, and the tribe found 
that Dhuramoolanj feasted on some of them. They became 
angry and destroyed him. Baiami put his voice into all the 
trees of the forests. He split open a tree and made a bull- 
roarer from it, and it had Dhuramoolan’s voice. Blaiami told 
the tribe that in future they must initiate the youths them¬ 
selves, using the bull-roarer to reproduce Dhuramoolan’s voice. 
i Spencer and Gillen, “The Native Tribes,” pp. 293-294. 
