The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia

corroborees would be held as usual, until, at a given signal, the y

men stayed

unthdeeguns daub them with white. That done, each man seizing his charge, hoists him on to his sh

few steps behind the men, chanting a farewell, then corroboree back a few steps, then hasten to join the younger women in the bough sheds, which

get ready to travel to where the Durrawunga, or Little Boorah, wi

ge-for each guardian was a relation of the same totem as his charge-they would perform some magical feat, such

osed all this time an

tudes assumed by the pupils, that these gestures inculcate veneration, which also seems to be the keynote of the eeramooun's instruction. The Boorah over, he

ne does the true reverence come, which makes

weapon each. This done they place their charges in slight

pain of death, not to l

ard, telling that Gayandi,

black men in the district, said at t

hese boys saw the men advance each to the fire where they had thrown their weap

mpling as they did so on the edge of the fire, which did not seem to burn them, rubbing and chanting

, giving new words for common things, which acted as pass-words hereafter for the initiated. Into a slow chant these words were st

n, curious as to their surroundings. Suddenly the men w

re sealed. Out flashed the sacre

hem and stretch its beams to the boys, who began to tremble. As louder grew the chant an answer came from the scrub, the voice of Gayandi; shaking with fear the boys fell to the ground, to all appearance lifeless. Then the old men went forward, each with a stone knife in hand. Stooping over the two boys they opened veins in each, out fl

ear and quail at the Little Boorah they would be returned to their mothers as cowards unfit for initiation, and sooner or later sympathetic magic would do its work, a poison-stick or bone would end them. Or if one of the initiates was considered s

who had not quailed, 'You are brave; you shall be boorahbayyi firs

h a pointed stone; this hole they licked to feel no splinte

Each man who had been to five Boorahs ate a piece of this flesh, no others were allowed even to see this done. Then th

y had wasted should go into other men who would use it better; while the spirits of the victims should wander about unti

is allotted place near the outer edge of the ring. There each Munthdeegun told his boy he could sleep that night; he would go to sleep the boy he had been, to wake in the morning a ne

ncing before them. They stopped in front of the first boy, called him to r

wah!

y to produce it whenever called upon to do so. The result of failure would be fatal to him. With the loss of the stone his life spirit would be weakened, and

e animated, by means of magical incantations, with a portion of the Deity; they were consulted on occasions of great and

chorus of 'Wah! wah! wah!' went up from that

ow had a front tooth knocked off; this done a wirreenun chanted to the bo

t was as

meet the B

he harm

w his spiri

s is th

t toot

is hi

know y

ers carefully wrapped them up to keep as charms, or to send to ot

ng round the fire, then the boys were taken away and giv

hallucinations. While the boys were eating, they could hear in the distance other chants, and knew that

ere they could hear faintly in the distance the noise of the main camp; so t

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 t

a distance in the present, and pictures of the future; some of which last filled their minds with dread, for they said as time went on the colours of the blacks, as seen in these magical stones, seeme

e had said that as long as the blacks kept his sacred laws, so long should he stay in his crystal seat, and the blacks live on earth; but if they faile

so many of the first-born half-caste babies were killed, t

he place where the Boorah had begun, and where p

ar the old camp of the trib

Gayandi was heard again, an

burnt out they covered it thickly with Budtha, Dheal, and Coolabah leaves to make a great smoke. On the to

e above it, the painted boys came into the open. On they came, heads down and hands on thighs, looking neither to the right nor to the left, but walking straight ahead until they stood on the logs on the fire. They leaned over and pla

n, then the men took the

smoked. This time while chanting a song the old women brought a big net and put it right over the boys. Then

eld no intercourse with the people of it. I have often met these Boorah boys in

eeth stuck in it, and a hole through it-was tied to their front lock of hair. A number of these yunbean were tied to forehead bands, which they wo

were hanging those most precious possessions to inland blacks-seaside shells. Some

painted, too, in corroboree style. They had made a smoke fire, but the logs instead of being put

r sons' shoulders. Then they rubbed all the paint off the boys' bodies; the boys never once looking at the

wander at will, so as they kept clear of the general camp. They might not receive food f

oals, and the rest. He saw the huge earthen figures of Byamee, Birrahgnooloo, and Baillahburrah, or Dillalee, and was told

one to continual movement in the lower world of the Eleanbah

himself perpetually moving. Those who know the blacks and their love of a 'dolce fa

be, or stealing a woman within the forbidden degrees-that is, of the same he

stand; he only having a shield to defend himself with, the men of the stolen woman's kin threw weapons at him. Only the men of her kin are assailants, not as in a murder trial, when the men of all kins can throw at th

orted by the all-seeing spirit at a man's death, and he is judged accordingly. Sir Thomas Mitchell, writing in 1837 his exp

Boorah song of Byamee, which Byamee himself sang; and to hear the prayer of the oldest wirreenun to Byamee, asking him

al times imploringly, his head turned to the east

He knows; why weary him by repetition, disturbing the rest he enjoys after his earth labours? But a prayer need not necessarily be addressed to the highest god. I think if we really understood and appreciated the mental attitude of the blacks, we should find more in their so-called incantations of the nature of invocations. When a man invokes aid on the eve of a battle,

which only the fully initiated may sing, and which an old bl

n translate it, the meaning having been lost in the '

ee gu

e gua

e gua

rh wi

rh wi

rh wi

nyah, bir

oran mula

doo

wurra

ulgah delah b

Nulgah delah

. . . . .

doo. Boombee

this song was known, but no one now knew the mea

to a Boorahbayyi when

say, swallow their st

was then, too, shown and taught the meanings of the tribal message-sticks, and the big Boorah one of Byamee. As few men now have ever bee

the figures and emba

s told them that the spirit's voice was really in this wood animating it. After a man has been to one Boorah he can have war weapons and is a warrior, but not until he has been to five can he join or be one of

ges effected or arranged; meetings where the wirreenuns of the Boogahroo produce the bags of hair, etc., and vendettas are sworn; meetings of Boodther, or giv

eting has a corrob

he pine pollen is failing and the red dust-storms come. And if you abused these dust-storms to a Beewee bl

and the rains are claimed by the tot

thout wind it belongs

to be Mullyan, the eagle-hawk, who makes the south-west wind claimed

etimes, but the crow hunts her back. But they say the log is rotting and she will get away yet, when there will

station once and wanted to marry a girl there. She would not consent, and told him to go home. He went, threatening to send a storm to wreck the station. The storm