! wah!'

Then he begins with the names along the next creek across the big
river, and so on; at the mention of each main stream the crowd again
join in the cry of

'Wah! wah! wah!'

All the while, closer and still closer, comes the sound of the Gayandi,
as the men call the Gurraymi, or bull roarer.

At length the two old wirreenuns come back to the camp and the noise
ceases, to recur sometimes during the night, when I expect, did any one
search for them, the old wirreenuns would be found missing from the
camp.

After the first whirling of the bull roarers and calling of the creek
names, the Gooyeanawannah, or messengers, prepare for a journey, and
when ready, the wirreenuns start them off in various directions to
summon neighbouring tribes from hundreds of miles round to attend the
Boorah. The messengers each carry a spear with a waywah (or belt of
manhood) on the top, seeing which no tribe, even at enmity with the
messenger, will molest him. When a messenger arrived at a strange camp,
he was not asked his business but left to choose his own time for
telling. He would squat down a little way from the strangers' camp,
food would probably be brought to him which he would cat.

He would find out who was the chief wirreenun of the tribe, then take
him apart, give to him his Boorah message-stick as guarantee of his
good faith, and tell him where and when the Boorah was to be held.
After having given all necessary information, the Gooyeanawannah would
return to his tribe; the wirreenun to whom he had given the
Doolooboorah, or message-stick, would send it on by the messenger of
his tribe, and so with others, until all were summoned, each tribe
letting it be known that a Boorah summons had been received by sounding
the Gayandi, which would carry its own tale to those in the camp.

Should young boys be chosen as messengers, they were held in high
honour; Woormerh they were called.

While the messengers were away, the old men of the tribe in whose
Noorumbah, or hereditary hunting lands, the Boorah was to be held,
prepared the sacred grounds.

They cleared a big circle, round which they put a bank of earth, and
from the circle was cleared a path leading to a thick scrub; along this
path were low earthen embankments, and the trees on both sides had the
bark stripped off, and carved on them the various totems and multiplex
totems of the tribes. Such carvings were also put on the trees round
the Bunbul, or little Boorah