298 Wisconsin Academy of Science% Arts, and Letters. 
over. 1 But, however the renewal of life is represented, it is 
essentially a pantomimic representation of the magical effect 
of the ceremony. The remjovedness of the performers from 
ordinary life is always emphasized by the elaborate paintings 
and masks which are constant accompaniments of all savage 
ceremonies. 
In several of these ceremonies we find examples of the 
mimic contest, which is, so frequently an element of the St. 
George plays, and of the Efuropean folk ceremonies. For in¬ 
stance, in the ceremony of the grass-seed totem already re¬ 
ferred to>, part of the men go back to their camp sulky, and 
seizing their boomerangs throw them at the othejr men who 
have received the offering of food. These men guard them¬ 
selves with shields but make no attempt to retaliate. This 
quarrel is of course only a pretence. 2 This instance may be 
paralleled in many of the ceremonies ; and seems to occur so 
frequently that it may be considered as an almost characteris¬ 
tic accompaniment. 3 
III. 
INITIATION CEREMONIES OF AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA. 
There is still another class of ceremonies which are paral¬ 
leled among many primitive and savage peoples,—the initia¬ 
tion ceremonies. This class of ceremony is held when the 
youth are initiated into the tribe, or, as the Australians say, 
“are made men.” It seems to be a universal idea of primitive 
man that the child who is born in the tribe is not of the tribe 
until he is formally admitted, and the ceremony in all in¬ 
stances seems to have reference to the peculiar circumstances 
attendant upon the forefathers of the tribe, and to be a re-en¬ 
actment of these circumstances. The ceremony is thus based 
on the belief in imitative magic; for the neophyte, by assum¬ 
ing the dress and performing the traditional acts of the myth- 
1 In the ceremony of the Water Totem, “The Native Tribes',” pp. 
189-193. 
2 “The Northern Tribes,” p. 292. 
s See the references to the works of Spencer and Gillen above. 
