During this time the commotion around the camp-fire continues without abatement. The excited throng, spurred on by what has preceded, seems to have become intoxicated by the sight of blood. The men who lay beneath the initiate during the operation figure prominently among them and display the clots and congealed patches of blood which cover considerable portions of their naked bodies. This provokes an appetite for seeing more and ere long one of the senior men, who has been initiated some time ago, volunteers to have the subincision of his urethra extended. He of his own free will calls upon an old man to perform on him and, when the nominee steps forward, he submits to the torture without flinching. Others follow his example. There is no doubt that the brave demonstration of masculine fearlessness stimulates the newly initiated member who is sitting aside and recovering from the shock which the trying ordeal has given his system.
The Kukata men at this stage, knowing that the candidate has now successfully passed the second great initiation rite, known as “Winyeru,” and is henceforth to be allowed to mix with the women, betray extreme sensual excitement. And it is whilst they are in that state that some of the oldest men approach them, carrying spears, with the points of which they extend the previous slit in the urethra by a further short distance. It is only natural that the blood which follows the cut is squirted in considerable quantity. The custom is to allow it to do so until the excitement abates, and then to stop the bleeding by holding a fire-stick near the wound. After submitting themselves to such treatment on numerous successive occasions, it could only be expected that the whole external length of the urethra is eventually slit. The old men maintain that thereby their carnal powers are increased, and for that reason their forefathers introduced the corresponding female operation.
The after-treatment of the patient is much the same as described in connection with the circumcision ceremony. When eventually the newly made “man” returns to the main camp, a great sensation is caused among the women who wail as if there had been a bereavement, and cut deep gashes into different parts of their bodies.
Many of the northern coastal tribes, such as the Wordaman of the Wickham and Victoria Rivers, erect a sacred pole at the site of the enactment of some of their religious and initiation ceremonies. This pole is called “Djundagalla” and stands six or seven feet high. It is painted in alternate bands of black and white, occasionally red and white, and resembles a barber’s pole more than anything. The “Djundagalla” stands in the centre of the cleared space and the rites are performed around it. In the northern Kimberleys, we find a stone phallus taking the place of the pole.
It is not every tribe that submits its young men to these mutilations at the initiation ceremonies. There are some which institute great graduation-festivals without the infliction of bodily harm to the virile aspirants. Notably among these are the Larrekiya, Melville Islanders, and the tribes living along the coast from the King River to the heads of the Roper and East Alligator Rivers.
As an illustration of a tribe which celebrates the coming of manhood without resorting to operative measures, the Larrekiya perhaps serve best. The boy, when definite signs of adolescence manifest themselves, is decorated with the kapok of the silk cotton-tree (Bombatt malabaricum) and birds’ down. A straight band passes below his eyes from ear, and the ends thereof are connected by means of a horseshoe-shaped figure traversing the cheeks and having its closed end at the chin. Another horizontal band extends from shoulder to shoulder, above the nipples, and from this two symmetrical lines are constructed down the abdomen and on to the thighs, where each terminates in a circular band around the knee. A white line is also drawn down the outer surface of each upper arm and is made to end in the plaited armlets worn above the elbow. His forehead is decorated with a broad band consisting of a number of parallel strands of opossum fur thickly besmeared with white pipeclay; in the middle of this is stuck a plume of emu or heron feathers, and fur-tassels pend from either side of it. He also wears a coiled bark belt and, over it, a human hair girdle supporting a large pubic tassel.
The initiates are made to sit in a row before the old men and are instructed to keep their eyes closed with their hands. The old men stamp the ground wildly and brandish their spears poised in the spear-throwers. Every now and then they utter harsh cries of “Arr-re! Arr-re!” and “Gora!” Whilst this pandemonium is in full swing, the boys are ordered to open their eyes and behold their elders performing; then they are led away into the bush and have to wait on the men, having especially to collect for them many things that are good to eat. During this period they are often cowed by being struck between the shoulder-blades, and threatened with violence if at any time they talk publicly about anything that has transpired or in any way betray the trust which the old men have placed in them. Upon their return to camp, the young men have additional scars cut into the skin of their chest and are then entitled “Böllier” which signifies that the first stepping stone to maturity has been passed.
A second ceremony takes place some years later. Each youth is then under the individual charge of an old man and is decorated much the same way as the Böllier candidate described above, with the distinguishing features of four red ochre stripes across the white forehead band and an extra plume of white cockatoo feathers stuck into his hair. The proceedings start soon after sundown and last till about midnight; they include much gesticulation and vociferation. At the solemn moment when the “conferring” of the maturity-degree takes place, the youth, still tended by the old man, remains motionless, with downcast eyes, and listens to the melancholy chant rendered by the old men in low lagging accents:
“Makolär manga, malolär, ä, är, maklär, immanga.”
No beating of sticks or clapping of hands accompanies this tune, and no further ceremonial dance follows.