stood sharply out from the mass of white down with which all the rest of
the upper part of his body was covered. These broad red bands
represented the Wollunqua. Each man also wore a tall, conical helmet
adorned with a curved band of red down, which, no doubt, likewise
symbolised the mythical serpent. When the two actors in the little drama
had been attired in this quaint costume of red and white down, they
retired behind a bush, which served for the side scenes of a theatre.
Then, when the orchestra, composed of adult men, struck up the music on
the ceremonial ground by chanting and beating boomerangs and sticks
together, the performers ran in, stopping every now and then to shake
themselves in imitation of the snake. Finally, they sat down close
together with their heads bowed down on a few green branches of
gum-trees. A man then stepped up to them, knocked off their
head-dresses, and the simple ceremony came to an end.[137]

[Sidenote: Ceremony in honour of the Wollunqua.]

The next ceremony was performed on the following day at another place
called Antipataringa, where the mythical snake is said to have halted in
his wanderings. The same two men acted as before, but this time one of
them carried on his head a curious curved bundle shaped like an enormous
boomerang. It was made of grass-stalks bound together with human
hair-string and decorated with white down. This sacred object
represented the Wollunqua himself.[138] From this spot the snake was
believed to have travelled on to another place called Tjunguniari, where
he popped up his head among the sand-hills, the greater part of his body
remaining underground. Indeed, of such an enormous length was the
serpent, that though his head had now travelled very many miles his tail
still remained at the starting-point and had not yet begun to take part
in the procession. Here accordingly the third ceremony, perhaps we may
say the third act in the drama, was performed on the third day. In it
one of the actors personated the snake himself, while the other stood
for a sand-hill.[139]

[Sidenote: Further ceremony in honour of the Wollunqua: the white mound
with the red wavy band to represent the mythical snake.]

After an interval of three days a fourth ceremony was performed of an
entirely different kind. A keel-shaped mound was made of wet sand, about
fifteen feet long by two feet high. The smooth surface of the mound was
covered with a mass of little dots of white down