HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
171 
For a moment or two tliey remain facing one another and then run quickly to 
where the boy is concealed, the brake of boughs is tlirown aside and the boy 
exposed to view. He now joins the other two blacks, and the three, advancing on 
all-fours and jumping like kangaroos, but in pei-fect silence, start down the line 
for the opposite or wider end. When they get about half-way the boy goes on 
alone while the two men diverge, go outside of the lines and make a circuit before 
re-joining their fellows. The boy continues his kangaroo-like progress keeping to 
the centre of the sunken track until he collides with a man on the edge of the 
assembly who is placed there. This man, who has until now been seated, rolls over 
on to his back and lies quite still; the boy immediately lies on the top of him ; 
perfect silence is maintained and every face is lit up with interest. The old 
warrior who directs the ceremony now calls two old lubras, who come, evidently 
considering themselves highly honoured, and these at once begin to rub the paint 
otf the boy’s back as he lies upon the recumbent blackfellow. When the old 
women have completed their task, a number of the men scatter out into the 
darkness, where they decorate themselves by tying to their ankles and calves long 
sticks, to which branches of gum trees have been tied. These sticks, from six to 
eight feet long, run up in front of the arms, by which they are grasped to the side 
of the body. They are prepared during the day out of sight of the lubras. 
When thus decorated the men return and general dancing takes place, in 
which the sexes intermingle. The lubras, as they dance, strip the leaves otf the 
sticks attached to the legs and work themselves into a wild state of excitement, 
singing, 
At-nin-tu rappira ka perkaa-a-a 
6k naar iiitd 
Yur a piincha kwi 
Yur a piincha kwi 
while the males remain comparatively calm. When this remarkable stripping- 
dance begins the ulpmerka gets otf the blackfellow and sits up watching the 
dance. 8uddenly the dance ceases, and the noise of a humming-stick or 
bull-roarer {iruld)^ wielded by some man a little distance oil, warns the lubras 
and children to retire to their camps ; this they do without a moment’s delay. 
No lubra or picaninny of either sex is ever allowed to see the humming- 
sticks. Only those who have attained to the degree of Ertiva kurka —that is to 
say, of perfect manhood—are allowed to look upon the sacred Iru/a.’' So soon 
as all lubras and children are out of sight a large lire is made, around which 
all the men congregate. One warrior produces a fighting shield, “ Alkivurta ” 
(generally made from the light elastic wood of Stuart’s Ilean Tree), and kneeling 
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