The youth has now been elevated to the status of “Mollinya” which qualifies him to the full rank and privileges of manhood. Further cicatrices may now be added to either side of his abdomen. The cuts are horizontal but do not extend right up to the median line.
During the period intervening between Böllier and Mollinya festivals, bustard, flying-fox, and yam are forbidden articles of diet, but after the latter event the fledgelings are invited to eat with the old men. They honestly believe that if any of the young men, while undergoing initiation, ate one of the forbidden articles secretly, the medicine man would be able to detect the food in his stomach; and having thus disobeyed, the medicine man would be justified in running a spear through the offender, or at any rate compel him to swallow certain things which would poison him. These rules are strictly observed, and, whenever some of the privileged members have eaten flying-fox or bustard, they take the precaution to collect the bones and burn them.
The tribes on Nullarbor Plains will tell you that the initiation ceremonies originated in the following way. Many, many years ago, the emu and the kangaroo were more or less human in appearance and possessed of mighty powers. One day the emu caught the kangaroo with the object of making a man of it. But the great struthious bird had no hands wherewith it might have performed an operation; all it possessed was a “finger” on each side of its body. It might be explained that the emu, because it cannot fly, is not regarded as a “bird” in the generally recognized sense, and consequently the wings are looked upon as “fingers.” In most of the vocabularies, indeed, no distinction is made between “finger” and “hand,” the south-western tribes of central Australia referring to one or the other as “marra.” Nothing daunted, however, the emu removed the præputium from the kangaroo by clutching it between its wings and pulling it off. Thereupon the emu said to the kangaroo: “Will you make me a man?” And the kangaroo replied, “Yes.” The kangaroo had the advantage over the emu because it possessed five “fingers,” with which it could perform the operation the right way. The animal caught hold of the bird and circumcised it with a sharp splinter of flint. But the emu requested to be further operated upon and so it came about that the kangaroo decided upon a subincision. To the present day the emu retains the marks of this operation. Some while after these happenings, the tribal fathers ran across the sacred emu and noted the change in its anatomy; they forthwith mutilated each other in a similar way, and only then did they realize that they were men.
Not boys alone are required to submit to the various initiation ceremonies here mentioned, but in most tribes young women are “made” marriageable by having to submit themselves to ordeals which are quite similar to those of manhood’s approbation.
While discussing the female breast, we noted that when it begins to develop a girl is taken away by the men and the breast anointed and sung to, to stimulate its growth. This procedure is the forerunner of initiation. The girl’s development is forthwith watched with care, and when the unmistakable signs of ripening are detected the event is celebrated with dance and song.
Men and women attend, and the items rendered are more or less of the nature of an ordinary corrobboree, although occasionally some special feature characterizes the performance. For instance the Larrekiya and Wogait tribes pass the girl through a “smoking” ceremony after the following fashion. An old gin places herself behind the girl and lays her hands upon the latter’s shoulders. Then all the other women taking part form a continuous chain by standing in a single row behind each other and “linking up” in a similar way. They begin to sing “Ya, Ya, Ya,” in a long-drawn melancholy note, and the old-gin immediately stamps her feet, and, moving forwards, pushes the girl along in front of her. All the other performers follow her, stamping in unison and holding on to the shoulders of the person in front. Quite unexpectedly the monosyllabic “Ya” is changed to “Yen da min,” and at this the old gin stops short and strikes the girl’s back thrice with her hand. The same performance is repeated time after time during the night. Early in the morning of the next day, the girl is led to the sea, and the whole party wades out to about hips’ depth. Here a grotesque dance is started during which they strike their arms, bent in the elbows, against the sides of their bodies under water, the splash producing a peculiar hollow-sounding note. The process reminds one of a goose flapping its wings while enjoying a bath. At this stage, the wording of the song sounds like “A-lö-lö-lö,” and when its final syllable has resounded, all bathers duck under the surface of the water.
Next a fire is kindled upon the shore, and, when a good blaze has been obtained, a heap of grass and leaves previously steeped in water, is piled upon it. Upon this the old gin seats herself and makes the girl sit upon her lap facing her and with her legs astride. The volumes of smoke which are generated completely hide the two from view. The idea is to allow the smoke to thoroughly play upon the parts of the novice, the process being facilitated by the manipulation of the old gin. When the ceremony is concluded, the girl is led into the bush by the old women and for some time to follow she is not allowed to partake of certain articles of diet, such as for instance snake, dugong, and goanna.
Several of the northern and north-eastern coastal tribes mutilate the hand of a young gin during the period of her initiation by removing two joints from a finger. The forefinger of either hand is generally chosen by the former tribes, the latter favouring the small finger. The Ginmu at the mouth of the Victoria River make the amputation with a stone knife. In this district a singular case came under my notice which is of considerable interest from an evolutional point of view since it suggests a phenomenon usually only met with in crustations, reptiles, and other creatures whose position is very much lower in the animal kingdom. A young girl had had two end phalanges of a finger imperfectly removed, and yet upon the mutilated stump a horny growth resembling a diminutive finger-nail had formed anew. The Daly River tribes remove the bones by tying a ligature of cobweb which they find in the mangroves very tightly around the joint. The end phalanges of the finger, thus deprived of the circulation, gradually mortify and drop off. Occasionally the joints may be bitten off by a parent of the child.
As a general rule, it may be said that wherever mutilations of the male are undertaken during initiation ceremonies, a corresponding operation is performed upon the female; and, vice versa, where the former practice is not indulged in, the latter is also unknown. Generally speaking, too, the female mutilation ceremonies are much the same wherever practised in Australia, but the implements or devices employed for the actual mutilation vary in different localities.
Invitations to the event are sent by special messengers to adjoining groups and neighbouring friendly tribes. These messengers are of mixed sexes and are decorated by having their bodies covered with ochre. The common method is to make the ground colour of the body a rich red and to draw upon it concentric circles of white and black. The men carry a “female” tjuringa, whilst the women, apart from numerous necklaces and armlets which they wear, are unaccoutred. The latter are near group-relatives of the young woman concerned. Their mission is readily understood by the people they look up during their walk-about, and, without much interchange of words, acceptance is indicated by the recipients of the message by resorting to an intimacy with the feminine emissaries. Although considerable liberality is shown during this indulgence, the privilege is by no means stretched to beyond the bounds of a tolerable promiscuousness, even though the messengers may be entertained at the distant camp for two or three days before they return home.