AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13225, 30 September 1911, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.

An Australian paper :-Urt> :-.- •- A weird ceremony was recoiuh ■:. k-iu^s-cd by Dr. Doolnough, tho' of the Northern Territory oApediUun. In. a letter to Professor David he describes tho portion of an initiation ceremony at which he was allowed, as a great favour, to be present. Tliero woro three chief performers, and theso had to be duly decorated, l'ipe-clny, birds' down, gum, and blood were tho chief ingredients. First, the birds' down was rubbed up with pipe-clay, and then white lines were drawn with moistened pipe-clay over tho bodies. Next the blood was obtained by jabbing a sharp stick into tho big vein in tho victim's arms, and the blood, mixed with gum, was used to stick the down on. Nearly two hours wero taken to dress, and all the time the natives droned corroboree songs, the words consisting generally of such I line? as "gidgeri, gideri, ma." Simul- ' tanoously with this investiture tho "bull-rotwerii" wero made. Dr. Woolnough does not srive a detailed descrip- , tion of theso tilings, as he was writing to a man to whom they wero familiar. These instruments, which aro believed to have very potent properties, apparently consist of two pieces of wood some three feet long and two inches wide, with holes bored at intervals. The "music" is produced by attaching them to a piece of rope thirty feet long, and then swinging the instrument at a rapid rate through the air. The one made on this occasion proved very satisfactory, one of the blacks expressing his appreciation to the doctor by exclaiming, "Hin yabbcr number one." Tho remaining portion of the ceremony was given up to weird dances and still weirder chants. The novices g^t through their part quite satisfactorily, and the ceremony ended-with the burning of the paraphernalia used. Tho "bull-roarers" were given to Professor Spencer, though, on account of their peculiar properties, they were usually burned. "The old chief'donned a very dirty pair of trousers and a still dirtier shirt, and the two 'bullroarers' woro, stuck down bis back, one down each leg of his pants. A funny object lie looked sneaking through the scrub witli a movable hump on bis back where the points of the 'bullroarers' stuck out." This was to picvent them being seen b- any women, to whom such a sight would be certain death.