and others, observed them at other places. They appear to have been more iiiiraeroiis on the northern and western coasts than elsewhere, bnt to have been elaborated with gi'eater eare at a distance from the shore than close to it. The rite of induction of jonng men has been alluded to as witnessed by Phillip's officers in S3 dney. There, as in dis- tricts far northward, and as in some of the tribes in Sonth Australia, the outward sign testifying the admission was the loss of a tooth, A place w^as set apart for the ceremony, and seldom chanfTeti. Women and clnldren never visited it< The occupation of it by white rnen confounded the natives as much as the destruction of 8t, Peter's or Notre Dame would astound Eomans or Frenchmen, A raised oval or circular ridge inclosed a space of about eight hundred super- ficial feet. It had but one inlet, though the mound was but a foot in height. Anotber sacred symbol was a mounded cross, made similarly of earth. All around the space were trees whose bark was graved with marks and patterns of winding lines, or of angular hgtires enclosed one within another. Strange dances were exhibited, which in various order signitied that in the chase and in war the young men were to assume new functions. Tbe dog, the kangaroo, the hostile tribe, were to lie subject to their prowess. Strange articles were shown and songs were taught which no woman or child could see or hear. Even a special call (or cooey), with its response was taught, to be used only out of hearing of the uninitiated. Seated on the shoulders of one man, the boy submitted to the operation by which his tooth was knoclced out by a blow from a stone on an instrument applied to the tooth. Usually the young men spent some subsequent weeks in the mountains apart from the general tribe under the tutelage of esteemed warriors, perfected their memories as to the rites they had witnessed, and gave assurance of observing secrecy. The loss of the front teeth was noticed b}^ Dampier in 1699, and by Flinders in the preseut century, in tribes where circumcision was practised. But on the east coast the first ceremony existed, and the latter was unknown. Many tribes of the interior and on the south Hud west coasts adopted neither practice, but all bad cere- 4 4 4
