novices. Then they came out of the water and put on clothes, and with them they put on also their usual demeanour.
The novices were led away ahead of the party, being now "completed" and made "ngai" so as to "please Daramulun."
The intention of this washing is that everything belonging to the ceremonies shall be left behind with the charcoal, which is the indication of them. To use their own expression, "Everything belonging to the bush work is washed away, so that the women may not know anything about it."[1]
The novices are forbidden, during their period of probation, to wash themselves, or to go into the water, especially if running, lest the influence with which the ceremonies have filled them should be washed off. The men had "gone to catch fish" full of buffoonery, with the word Yah! on the tip of their tongues; when they came out of the pool, having left behind them all I have described as peculiar to these ceremonies, they resumed their usual quiet and impassible demeanour. The bundles were picked up and we started on our way to the new camp. When we had almost reached the crest of the range we overtook the Kabos and the novices. Gunjerung called a halt, and the bull-roarers were produced from the bundles and swung loudly. The novices were brought back to us, and Gunjerung spoke to them about these things, showing them the tooth-stick, the mallet, and the Mudthis. Finally, turning to the Wolgal boy, he said, pointing to the bull-roarers, and especially to the one which had been sent to him: "These are what made the noise you heard, and this one was very strong, it brought me all the way from Moruya." I may mention here that the head Gommera takes care of the Mudthis from one Kuringal to the other.
We now started again, the "young men" no longer being led by their Kabos, but walking by themselves alongside the other men.
The whole of the secret ceremonies were now completed,
- ↑ Dr. Lorimer Fison tells me that this cleansing exactly corresponds with the Nanga ceremony in Fiji.
