h so startled Ooboon that he dropped his light, and said "What is
the matter? You startled me. I did not know who you were and might have
hurt you, though I had no wish to, for the Wahn are my friends."

"I cannot stop now," said the Wahn, "I must go back to my camp. I have
forgotten something I wanted to show you. I'll be back soon." And so
saying, swiftly ran Wahn back to where he had left his boondee, then
back he came almost before Ooboon realised that he had gone. Back he
came, and stealing up behind Ooboon dealt him a blow with his boondee
that avenged amply the victims of the deadly light, by stretching the
chief of the Ooboon a corpse on the ground at his feet. Then crying
triumphantly, "Wah, wah, wah," back to his camp went Wahn and told what
he had done.

This night, when the Borah corrobboree began, all the women relations
of the boys to be made young men, corrobboreed all night. Towards the
end of the night all the young women were ordered into bough humpies,
which had been previously made all round the edge of the embankment
surrounding the ring. The old women stayed on.

The men who were to have charge of the boys to be made young men, were
told now to be ready to seize hold each of his special charge, to carry
him off down the beaten track to the scrub. When every man had, at a
signal, taken his charge on his shoulder, they all started dancing
round the ring. Then the old women were told to come and say good-bye
to the boys, after which they were ordered to join the young women in
the humpies. About five men watched them into the humpies, then pulled
the boughs down on the top of them that they might see nothing further.

When the women were safely imprisoned beneath the boughs, the men
carrying the boys swiftly disappeared down the track into the scrub.
When they were out of sight the five black fellows came and pulled the
boughs away and released the women, who went now to their camps. But
however curious these women were as to what rites attended the boys'
initiation into manhood, they knew no questions would elicit any
information. In some months' time they might see their boys return
minus, perhaps, a front tooth, and with some extra scarifications on
their bodies, but beyond that, and a knowledge of the fact that they
had not been allowed to look on the face of woman since their
disappearance into the scrub, they were never enlightened.

The next day the tribes made ready to travel to the place