Some other peculiarities, however, were observed. The blood that issued from the lacerated gum was not wiped away, but suffered to run down the breast, and fall upon the head of the man on whose shoulders the patient sat, and whose name was added to his. I saw them several days afterwards, with the blood dried upon the breast. They were also termed Ke-bar-ra, a name which has reference in its construction to the singular instrument used on this occasion, Ke-bah in their language signifying a rock or stone. I heard them several months after address each other by this significant name.
No. 8 This Plate represents the young men arranged and sitting upon the trunk of a tree, as they appeared in the evening after the operation was over. The man is Cole-be, who is applying a broiled fish to his relation Nan-bar-ray's gum, which had suffered from the stroke more than any of the others.
Yoo-long Erah-ba-diang, No. 8.
Suddenly, on a signal being given, they all started up, and rushed into the town, driving before them men, women, and children, who were glad to get out of their way. They were now received into the class of men; were privileged to wield the spear and the club, and to oppose their persons in combat. They might now also seize such females as they chose for wives.
All this, however, must be understood to import, that by having submitted to the operation, having endured the pain of it without a murmur, and having lost a front tooth, they received a qualification which they were to exercise whenever their years and their strength should be equal to it.
Bennillong's sister, and Da-ring-ha, Cole-be's wife, hearing me express a great desire to be possessed of some of these teeth, procured three of them for me, one of which was that of Nan-bar-ray, Cole-be's relation.
I found that they had fastened them to pieces of small line, and were wearing them round their necks. They were given to me with much secrecy and great dread of being observed, and with an injunction that I should never let it be known that they had made me such a present, as the Cam-mer-ray tribe, to whom they were to be given, would not fail to punish them for it; and they added that they should tell them the teeth were lost. Nan-bar-ray's tooth Da-ring-ha wished me to give to Mr. White, the principal surgeon of the settlement, with whom the boy had lived from his being brought into it, in the year 1789, to Mr. White's departure; thus with gratitude remembering, after the lapse of some years, the attention which that gentleman had shown to her relative.
Having remained with them while the operation was performed on three or four of the boys, I went into town, and returned after sun-set, when I found the whole equipped and seated on the trunk of the tree, as described in the Plate. It was then that I received the three teeth, and was conjured by the women to leave the place, as they did not know what might ensue. In fact, I observed the natives arming themselves; much confusion and hurry was visible among them; the savage appeared to be predominating; perhaps the blood they had drawn, and which was still wet on the heads and breasts of many of them, began to make them fierce; and, when I was on the point of retiring, the signal was given, which animated the boys to the first exercise of the spirit which the business of the day had infused into them, (for I have no doubt that their young bosoms were warmed by the different ceremonies which they had witnessed, of which they had indeed been something more than mere spectators, and which they knew had been exhibited wholly on their account,) and they rushed into the town in the manner before described, every where as they passed along setting the grass on fire.