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ray Island)—a small island about one hundred and twenty miles from Muralug-and to my great surprise I saw a number of small boys playing with similar bull-roarers. These boys were scholars in the Mission School, and had been brought from Saibai, a low island near the coast of New Guinea, at the other end of the Straits.

In one island a bull-roarer was too sacred to be shown to a woman; in another it was a plaything!

All over Australia the bull-roarer is regarded with religious awe, and it is first shown to lads at the ceremony during which they are initiated into manhood. With us manhood is merely a question of age-with these people it is a state of grace; unless a lad has been initiated, he counts as nobody; he has no tribal rights, nor can he perform any ceremony. No woman is allowed to see the bull-roarer; if shown by a man to a woman or uninitiate the punishment to both is death. I was informed that the death penalty was similarly inflicted among the eastern tribe of Torres Straits if the names were divulged of the sacred masks which were worn during the initiation ceremonies, and if a woman identified the disguised chief performers of one of the ceremonies" she died that night."'

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In some parts of Australia a deluge myth is associated with the bull-roarer, and the lads are told that if ever a woman is allowed to see one the earth will open, and water gush forth and submerge it. The old men point spears at the boys' eyes, saying, If you tell this to any woman you will die; you will see the ground broken up and like the sea; if you tell this to any woman or to any child you will be killed." The Rev. Mr. Fison gives the following tradition: "Some children of the Kurnai, in playing about, found a türndün (bull-roarer), which they took home to the camp A. C. Haddon, 66 Manners and Customs of the Torres Straits Islanders," Journ. Royal Inst. of Great Britain, 1890.

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FIG. 40. Comparative Series of Bull-Roarers.

1. Bushman (after Ratzel); 2. Eskimo (after Murdoch), 7X2; 8. Apache, North America (after Bourke), 8X1: 4. Pima, North America (after Schmeltz), 15X1; 5. Nahuquá, Brazil (after V. d. Steinen), 13X2; 6. Bororo, Brazil (after V. d. Steinen), 15X34; 7. Patani Malay, E. coast of Malay Peninsula (original, from a description by W. Skeat); 8. Sumatra (after Schmeltz), 44X; 9. New Zealand (original), 13X4; 10, 11. Toaripi, British New Guinea (original), 20X5, 11X1; 12. Mabuing, Torres Straits, 16X3; 13. Muralug, Torres Straits (original), 64X14; 14. Mer, Torres Straits (original), 5X; 15. South Australia (after Etheridge), 14X1, both sides of the same specimen are shown; 16. Wiradthuri tribes, N. S.W. (after Matthews), 131X2; 17. Clarence River tribe, N. S. W. (after Matthews), 5X1; 18. S. E. coast, N. S. W. (after Matthews), 13X2; 19. Kamilaroi tribe, Weir River, Queensland (after Matthews), 111.

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and showed the women. Immediately the earth crumbled away, and it was all water, and the Kurnai were drowned."

So much has been written of late concerning the initiation ceremonies in Australia, that it is impossible for me to enter into the subject at any length. Matthews,' who has recently published some very interesting observations on the Bora, or initiation ceremonies of the Kamilaroi tribe, records that at the main camp, during the early part of nearly every night, one of the masters of the ceremonies would go alone into the bush a short distance from the camp, and for about two hours would sound a wooden instrument which these blacks called murrawan, which is supposed to represent the voice of Durramoolan, their native name for the evil spirit, who rules in the night. During the time the instrument referred to was being sounded in the adjacent forest, the men of the tribes would dance and yell, and make hideous noises, and all the gins would sing and beat time, those of each tribe singing their own peculiar song. Howitt ' Howitt says:

“Tharamülün3 was not everywhere thought to be a malevolent being, but he was dreaded as one who could severely punish the trespasses committed against those tribal ordinances and customs whose first institution is ascribed to him. He, it is said, taught the Murring all the arts they knew; he instituted the ceremonies of Initiation of Youth; he made the original mudji (the turndün, or bull-roarer, of the Kurnai); ordered the animal names to be assumed by men; and directed what rules should be observed as to the food permitted or forbidden to certain persons. It was taught to the Murring youths at their initiation that Tharamülün himself watched the youths from the sky, prompt to punish, by sickness or death, the breach of his ordinances.

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R. H. Matthews, "The Bora, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kamilaroi

Tribe," Journ. Anth. Inst., xxiv., 1895, p. 419.

A. W. Howitt, On Some Australian Beliefs," ibid., xiii., 1883, p. 192. 3 Also called Thrümülün or Daramülün.

These prohibitions were only relaxed as the youths proved themselves worthy, and in some cases appear to have been perpetual.

"The knowledge of Tharamülün, and his attributes and powers, was only communicated to the youths at their initiation, and was regarded as something eminently secret and not on any account to be divulged to women or children. It is said that the women among the Ngarego and Wolgal knew only that a great being lived beyond the sky, and that he was spoken of by them as Papang (Father). . . . The old men strenuously maintained that the knowledge of the name of Tharamülün was imparted to themselves only at their initiation by the old men. This name is to them so sacred that even in speaking to me of it, when no one else was present but ourselves, the old men have done so in almost whispers, and have used elliptical expressions to avoid the word itself, such as He,'' the man,' or the name I told you of.' I believe that the dread of offending an unseen, powerful, possibly present spirit, lies much at the root of the disinclination to utter the name Tharamülün. One old Theddora woman (the last of her tribe) said, when I asked her who was Tharamülün; 'He lives up there' (pointing to the sky); I only know that; and also that when boys are made young men he comes down to frighten them. I once heard him coming with a noise like thunder.'

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In describing in detail the initiation ceremonies of the Coast Murring tribe, Howitt says ':

"The Mudji is held to have been first made and used by Daramülün, when in the beginning of things he instituted these ceremonies, and constituted the aboriginal society as it exists. The noise made by it is the voice of Daramülün, calling together the initiated; and, moreover, it represents the muttering of thunder, which is said to be his voice calling to the rain to fall and make the grass grow up green.' These are the very words used by Umbara, the minstrel and improvisatore of his tribe."

A. W. Howitt, "On Some Australian Ceremonies of Initiation," Journ. Anth. Inst., xiii., 1884, p. 446.

In a later paper, Howitt states that " Showing the Grandfather" is the cryptic phrase used to describe the central mystery of the Feraeil,' or initiation ceremonies of the Kurnai tribe. In reality it means the exhibition of the Tundun, and the revelation to them of the ancestral beliefs. The Kurnai have two bull-roarers, a larger one called the Tundun, or" the man," and a smaller one called Rukut Tundun, the woman or "wife of Tundun." The larger one is also called " Grandfather," Weintwin or Mük-Brogan.' In this the Kurnai differ from the Murring, who have only one bull-roarer, but they agree with several other Australian tribes. Where there is only one the women are totally excluded.

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The women and the children are always told that, at the secret parts of the Jeraeil, Tundun himself comes down to make the boys into men." The hideous sounds which the uninitiated may chance to hear from a distance they are told is Tundun's voice, and they are warned not to leave their camp while he is about, lest he should kill them with his spears. Howitt describes how the newly initiated youths thoroughly enter into the fun of frightening the women, and, having got over their awe of the bull-roarers, they make an outrageous noise with them. It sometimes happens that, during the nocturnal perambulation, one of the bull-roarers becomes detached from its string, and is thus lost. If, perchance, it is afterwards picked up by a woman or a child, their curiosity is satisfied by the statement that it is a "paddle belonging to Tundun," which he is supposed to have dropped in returning home. The shape of the bull

1 A. W. Howitt, "The Jeraeil, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kurnai Tribe," Journ. Anth. Inst., xiv., 1885, pp. 312, 315.

Weintwin father's father, or father's father's brother. All those initiated at the same Jeraeil are Brogan, or "Comrade" to each other. Mük-Brögan is the " Chief Comrade."

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