The three spears which had little nets attached to them, and which had been brought down by the Nar-wij-jerooks, were now advanced in front of that tribe, still seated and stuck in a row in the ground.

Three men then got up and seated themselves at the foot of the three spears, with their legs crossed.

Two other natives then went over to the Moorunde people, to where the three novices stood shaking and trembling, like criminals waiting for their punishment, seizing them by the legs and shoulders, and carefully lifting them from the ground, they carried each in turn, and laid them on their backs at full length upon green boughs, spread upon the ground in front of the three men sitting by the spears, so that the head of each rested on the lap of one of the three.

From the moment of their being seized, they resolutely closed their eyes, and pretended to be in a deep trance until the whole was over.

When all three novices had been laid in their proper position, cloaks were thrown over them, but leaving the face exposed, and a Nar-wij-jerook coming to the side of each, carefully lifted up a portion of the covering and commenced plucking the hair from the pubes.