the tribes, from the Wudthaurung at Corio Bay to the Mogullum-bitch at the Buffalo River. From other native informants I have learned also that the range of these ceremonies was also from Port Phillip Heads to Echuca.
When a boy was about ten or eleven years old, that is to say, when his whiskers were beginning to appear, his parents or relations, or even other people, would remark that it was only decent and proper that he should no longer run about naked. Then his Guritch, sister's husband, would tell him that he must be made Jibauk.[1] But some time before this, his parents sent him to live with the young men in their camp, which was always at a distance from the camps of the married men.
The Jibauk Ceremonies
The Jibauk ceremonies were held periodically where Melbourne, Geelong, Bacchus Marsh, Seymour, Bendigo, the Delatite River, Benalla, the Buffalo River, Echuca, and other places now are.
When the ceremonies were held by the Wurunjerri, a screen of boughs was made some two or three hundred yards from the main encampment, with a large fire in front, of it. The boy's Guritch or his Kangun, that is, his mother's brother, took him there, having first covered him with a rug, the corner of which hung over his face. Having joined the others who were to be "made men," a number of men's kilts (Branjep), which had been collected from the men at the camp, were tied round his waist. His hair was cut quite short, excepting a ridge, like a cock's comb, along his head from front to back. Mud was thickly plastered over his head and shoulders, and a wide band of pipe-clay was painted from ear to ear, across his face. Another band was from the Branjep in front over his head to that hanging behind.
He carried a bag slung round his neck, in which was a live opossum which he had caught, and from which he had
- ↑ This word is pronounced usually as I have written it, but it really is Jiba-gop.
