The moment the latter unearthly sounds are heard at a Kukata ceremony, the men respond with an uproarious slogan sounding like: “Wubbi, wubbi, wubbi, wau!” This imitates the noise of the bull-roarer, which is supposed to be the voice of the presiding spirit. A perceptible wave of solemnity pervades the atmosphere at this moment, not only in the immediate surroundings of the ceremonial fire, but wherever the piercing chorus strikes the ears of camping groups, who may at the time be many miles away. Women and children shudder with fright and bury their faces in their hands. The initiated men, however, act differently. Where there is only one in camp, he rushes to the fireside and snatches a burning stick which he tosses high into the air. When there are several present, they rush out together into the darkness and unitedly echo the “Wubbi, wubbi, wubbi, wau!”
The boy’s mouth is gagged with a ball of hair-string, which serves the double purpose of stifling his voice, should he attempt to cry, and of giving him something to bite his teeth into when he is in pain.
The men at the lower end now force his legs asunder and press them downwards over the side of the bodies below. As this is happening, the operator walks into the space between the thighs, with his beard between his lips and his eyes rolling in their sockets. He carries a knife in his hand—usually a fair-sized freshly broken splinter of quartzite, chalcedony, flint, or quartz, with or without a handpiece of resin—and immediately proceeds to operate. The Wongapitcha at this stage stun the boy by clubbing his head. With his left hand the surgeon seizes the prepuse, whilst a veritable reverberation of short-sounded “i, i’s” meets him from the mouths of all present, and as he draws it well forward a number of hacks severs it ([Plate XXX]). The Dieri make use of a short, smooth, cylindro-conical stone, over the rounded point of which the operator stretches the skin, and so pushes back the glans before he cuts.
Among the Kukata the circumcision ceremonial is referred to as “Gibberi.” During its period, cicatrices are made on the arms, but the characteristic transverse cuts on the back are reserved for the following rite, which goes by the name of “Winyeru.” The prepuse is resected with a stone knife known as “tjulu,” and immediately destroyed by throwing it into the fire.
As the surgeon’s hand leaves the boy’s body with the detached skin clutched between two fingers, the act is greeted all round with an appreciative exclamation sounding like “A ha, a hm.” The Aluridja refer to the skin as “banki,” and bury it shortly after the operation.
The boy, who by this time is usually semi-comatous, is sat up, and the blood which is streaming from him is collected in a piece of bark previously laid beneath him. The Wogait and other northern tribes subsequently dress the wound with paperbark, clay, emu fat, and hot ashes, to stanch the bleeding. When the boy recovers from the shock, he is presented with a spear and spear-thrower, and often a shield as well.
The patient is then taken into the bush to convalesce; and during this period his diet is under strict observation. After about three weeks he has more or less recovered and returns with the men to the main camp, wearing a fur-tassel which covers his pubes. His mother and other near female relatives on the mother’s side, when they behold him, walk towards him sobbing, tearing hair from their scalps and otherwise hurting their bodies as indication of their sympathy for the painful ordeal he has so bravely undergone whilst aspiring towards the status of manhood.
Cases have repeatedly come under my notice in latter years where a circumcision candidate has attempted to evade the operation by travelling away from his tribe and residing indefinitely with some other party, native or European, having no jurisdiction over him. It is usually only a matter of time and he will be ambushed by men of his own tribe and taken back to camp. The operation is then immediately performed, and is made extraordinarily drastic as a punishment. The skin is stretched forward under considerable tension and severed with a stone knife. In several specimens which are in my possession, the external sheath was cut so high up that a number of pubic hairs were removed with it.
This ceremony in its essential features is much the same among all tribes which circumcise, although there are slight variations in the method of building up the human operating table. In the Wogait tribe, for instance, the boy is thrown on his back over the legs of four men who sit in pairs, face to face, with their limbs alternately placed so that the feet of one are against a thigh of another.
We have already referred to the ceremonial object known as the “wanningi,” which is produced during this ceremony. This is always constructed specially for the occasion and is destroyed again immediately after; under no circumstances are the women and children allowed to see it, for if they did blindness or some paralysing affliction would strike them for their disobedience. In its simplest form, the “wanningi” consists of a cross, from the centre of which a long twine of fur is wound spirally outwards, from arm to arm, and fastened with a single turn round each arm in succession. The object is either stuck into the hair as referred to, or carried in the hand by the functionaries during the final stage of the ceremony. In the northern Kimberleys a similar structure is used which is carried at the end of a spear or long stick behind the back of the performer. The “wanningi” is supposed to become inspired by a spirit guardian the moment the object is completed and prevents the boy from suffering too great a loss of blood. It is shown to the boy just prior to the operation and its sacred nature is explained to him.