would answer his
purpose. He carefully hid them until he made a Boorah. And since then
such pieces of wood have been the medium for the Gayandi's voice, and
are kept carefully hidden away from all but the eyes of wirreenuns.

At length all the expected tribes had arrived, preparations were
finished, and a signal was given for a move to be made that the real
ceremonies might begin.

The fully initiated men went away after their midday meal, and about
sundown came in single file along the banked-in path each carrying a
firestick in one hand, a green switch in the other. When they reached
the mudgee in the middle of the big ring and corroboreed for a little
round it, the old women answered with a Boorah song, and all moved to
the edge of the ring. At this stage men often tried to steal each
other's boys, and great wrestling matches came off. One man would try
to pull up the mudgee, out would rush one of another clan to wrestle
with him. First the boys would wrestle, then the elder men, each
determined his clan should prove victorious at this great Boorah
wrestling.

The skill of the eeramooun, or uninitiated boys, would be tried in sham
fights too. They were given bark shields, and their attackers had bark
boomerangs; great was the applause when the boys ably defended
themselves. Previously they have been tried with boomerang and boodthul
throwing, and other arts of sport and warfare, boys of each tribe
trying to excel those of the others. If a boy comes well out of these
trials the men say he is worthy to be a yelgidyi, or fully initiated
young man.

When the wrestling and sham fights are over, corroborees begin. All
night they are kept up, and sometimes there are day performances too.

CHAPTER IX

THE BOORAH AND OTHER MEETINGS

At last would come the night when everything was ready. Sports and
corroborees would be held as usual, until, at a given signal, the
younger women were ordered into bough sheds which were round the ring.

The old women stayed on singing.

The boys, who are painted red, are beckoned into the middle of the
ring, where their respective Munthdeeguns daub them with white. That
done, each man seizing his charge, hoists him on to his shoulder, and
dances round the ring with him. Then the old women are told to bid the
boys good-bye.

Forward they come, singing each her own brumboorah, for every oldest
woman relation of each of the boys makes a song for him. They
corroboree a few step