hey were supposed to be animated, by means
of magical incantations, with a portion of the Deity; they were
consulted on occasions of great and pressing emergency as a kind of
divine oracle, and were suspended either round the neck or some other
part of the body.

As each boy received his stone another loud chorus of 'Wah! wah! wah!'
went up from that crowd, making the scrub ring with the sound.

Some of those, of whose tribe it was the custom--it is not invariably
so--now had a front tooth knocked off; this done a wirreenun chanted to
the boy, who had been blindfolded and almost deafened by the whirring
of Gayandi.

One chant was as follows:--

Now you can meet the Boorah spirit,
Now will he harm you not.
He will know his spirit is in you.
For this is the sign,
A front tooth gone.
That is his sign,
He will know you by it.

Some of the wirreenuns buried these teeth by the Boorah fire, others
carefully wrapped them up to keep as charms, or to send to other
tribes, each according to the individual custom of his tribe.

This all over, once more there was a marching and chanting round the
fire, then the boys were taken away and given food for the first time
since they left their mothers.

No wonder that the 'supernatural' was mixed up with their impressions
of the Boorah: fasting nourishes hallucinations. While the boys were
eating, they could hear in the distance other chants, and knew that
ceremonies were going on to which they were not yet to be admitted,
there being degrees of initiation.

On the fourth day the men took them about ten miles, and camped with
them where they could hear faintly in the distance the noise of the
main camp; so they knew they were near the place chosen for the
Durramunga, or Little Boorah.

Just before dawn next morning each Munthdeegun took his Boorahbayyi, or
partially initiated one, to the Durramunga. There was a Boorah ring,
but instead of earth grass was heaped all round it. No young women were
visible, only the old women, who sang and corroboreed towards the boys.
Slowly they came forward, peered at their shoulders, and seeing there
the marks, embraced them, shrieking out cries of joy that their boys
had borne the tests. They danced round them, then at a sign from the
old men embraced them again; and while, the women sang their brumboorah
and danced, the boys were taken away by their guardians.

For two moons they remained away, learning much as to sacred thi