The Native Tribes of North Central Australia: Chapter IX. Initiation Ceremonies (Continued) the Engwura Ceremony (Concluded)

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1 totem, and a Kumara man of the kangaroo totem. Each man wore, fixed into his head-dress, four Churinga, while his body was decorated with

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1 ornamented his shoulders and chest, and in the middle was joined to another which ran round above the waist, each having an edging of white down. From the front of the head-dress projected two sticks, each of which was nearly a yard in length, and was covered with rings of down. In the noonday heat of mid-summer, with the sun shining straight down so that you sat, or stood, on your own shadow, the remarkable and weighty head-dress must have been particularly trying to wear. The performer sat down on a heap of small gum tree boughs and

1 Then he sat down and called the young Purula man up to assist him in removing the decorations.

After each ceremony the down is carefully removed from the body, though naturally a not inconsiderable portion adheres

1 All save one or two old men moved away, and these few stayed to watch the Illpongwurra. For some time not a sound was to be heard. None of them might speak or move without the consent of the old men in whose charge they were. By means of gesture language one or two of them asked for permission to go to the river and drink at a small soakage which had been made in the sand. In a short time they returned, and then it was after dark before they were allowed to rise. The sudden change from the wild dance round the performer and the Parra, accompanied by the loud shouting of the men whose bodies were half hidden by thick clouds of dust, which the strong light of the setting sun illuminated, was most striking.

About nine o'clock the men got up and began the usual singing, running sideways along by the Parra, shouting loudly as they did so. Shortly before midnight a curious ceremony was performed, which was associated with certain Oruncha men of Imanda. There were four performers, and the ceremony was divided into two parts. Three men were engaged in the first and more important scene. A long hole, just big enough to hold a man's body, but not deep enough to conceal it, was scooped out. In this, at full length, one of the men lay while a second knelt down over his legs and the third knelt at the head end. These two were supposed to be Oruncha men, engaged in baking the man in the earth oven, and each of them with two boomerangs imitated the action of basting him and of raking the embers up over his body, whilst he himself imitated admirably the hissing and spluttering noise of cooking meat. After a few minutes the three got up

1 A hole was dug two feet deep by means of a pointed digging stick, and in this it was firmly implanted at a distance of about six yards from the Parra and opposite to the middle of the mound.

In the early part of the afternoon of this day the Illpongwurra had to submit themselves for the second time to an ordeal by fire. A secluded spot amongst the ranges some two miles away from Alice Springs was selected, and here, while the young men rested by the side of a water-hole in the bed of the Todd, the Urliara, who were in charge of them, went to the chosen spot and made a large fire of logs and branches about three yards in diameter. Then the young men, of whom forty were present, were called up, and putting green bushes on the fire they were made to lie down full length upon the smoking boughs, which prevented them from coming into contact with the red-hot embers beneath. The heat and smoke were stifling, but none of them were allowed to get up until they received the permission of the Urliara. After they had all been on once, each one remaining for about four or five minutes on the fire, the old men came to the conclusion that they must repeat the process, and so making up the fire again, they were once more put on in the midst of dense clouds of smoke, one of the older men lifting up the green boughs at one side with a long pole so as to allow of the

1 and then, in perfect silence, the whole party walked in single file through the break

Footnotes

330:1 Leipoa ocellata, the mound bird.

331:1 Wad is an oxide of manganese, which when powdered up produces a bluish-gray powder, and is rubbed on the body for decorative purposes. The wad is obtained from a special spot near to Henbury on the Finke River.

344:1 Imanda itself is the great centre of the frog totem; but occupying a strip along the southern bank of the Hugh River, close by, is a local centre of the Unchipera or small bat totem, while opposite to this on the north bank of the river is a centre of the Elkintera or large white bat totem.

351:1 They have to lie down so that the Parra is between them and the women's camp, and the latter must always lie to the east of the Parra.

372:1 The possible significance of the Kauaua is dealt with in connection with the description of the decoration of objects used during sacred ceremonies, Chap. XIX.

378:1 The relative positions of the Parra and of the women's camp must be such that when grouped round the Kauaua, and looking towards the women, the men face eastwards, the Parra lying between them and the women. The direction in which the Parra runs is in some way associated with the fact that in the Alcheringa the various wandering group of Achilpa travelled north and south; the facing of the men towards the east has nothing to do with the rising of the sun.