became active. Bunbra who, at the time when Bruthen-munji directed the proceedings of the Nungi-nungit against him, was a comparatively young man, and without any consideration in the tribe, was now by reason of his age its Headman, to whom all matters were referred. To him messengers were sent, he gave orders as to the time for assembling, and the others obeyed them. Indeed, without him they would not have moved at all.
At the Jeraeil ceremonies he was the leader, and it was mainly his voice that decided questions which arose and were discussed at meetings of the initiated men. When during the ceremonies two of the novices were brought before the old men charged with having broken some of the ceremonial rules, it was Bunbra who spoke last, and his directions as to them were followed.
In one of the intervals of the ceremonies at the Jeraeil, when I was sitting with some of the old men; they spoke of the old times, and what was very unusual, of the old men who were now dead, and of their great actions. I could understand then how they came to be the Gweraeil-kurnai of the tribe. One of those they mentioned was a man of the Brataualung clan, who in a fight with one of the other clans, ran ahead of his men and broke the legs of some of the enemy with his hands, leaving them to be killed by his followers. So also another man of the Brayaka, who lived near where Rosedale now is, used in wet winters, when the ground was very soft with rains, to run down the old men kangaroos, and thus catch them with his hands, and kill them. Another old hero was Bruthen-munji, whom I have mentioned before. It was said that he ran down one of the Brajerak, at a place now known as Blackfellow's Gully, near Buchan, and held him till his brother, another fighting-man of renown, came up and killed him with his club.
In the Chepara tribe there was a Headman called Kulumba-mutta, that is, "Great Man," and in the Chepara clan of the tribe it was the Kulumba-mutta of it who was superior to any of the other Headmen.
The office of Headman descended to the son; if there were no son, then to the daughter's son; and, failing this,
