which repose in their hallowed cave among the mountain
solitudes. Even when he has passed through all the ordeals, many years
may elapse before he is admitted to a knowledge of these mysteries, if
he shews himself to be of a light and frivolous disposition. When at
last by the gravity of his demeanour he is judged to have proved himself
indeed a man, a day is fixed for revealing to him the great secret. Then
the headman of his local group, together with other grave and reverend
seniors, conducts him to the mouth of the cave: the stones are rolled
away from the entrance: the spirits within are duly warned of the
approach of visitors; and then the sacred sticks and stones, tied up in
bundles, are brought forth. The bundles are undone, the sticks and
stones are taken out, one by one, reverently scrutinised, and exhibited
to the novice, while the old men explain to him the meaning of the
patterns incised on each and reveal to him the persons, alive or dead,
to whom they belong. All the time the other men keep chanting in a low
voice the traditions of their remote ancestors in the far-off dream
times. At the close the novice is told the secret and sacred name which
he is thenceforth to bear, and is warned never to allow it to pass his
lips in the hearing of anybody except members of his own totemic
group.[124] Sometimes this secret name is that of an ancestor of whom
the man or woman is supposed to be a reincarnation: for women as well as
men have their secret and sacred names.[125]

[Sidenote: Number of _churinga_ in a store-house. Significance of the
_churinga_. Use of the _churinga_ in magic.]

The number of sacred birth-stones and sticks kept in any one store-house
naturally varies from group to group; but whatever their number, whether
more or less, in any one store-house they all normally belong to the
same totem, though a few belonging to other totems may be borrowed and
deposited for a time with them. For example, a sacred store-house of the
honey-ant totem was found to contain sixty-eight birth-sticks of that
totem with a few of the lizard totem and two of the wild-cat totem.[126]
Any store-house will usually contain both sticks and stones, but as a
rule perhaps the sticks predominate in number.[127] Time after time
these tribal repositories are visited by the men and their contents
taken out and examined. On each examination the sacred sticks and stones
are carefully rubbed over with dry and powdered red ochre or