The rites used by the Bidawal to negotiate the
initiatory passage of young men into full adult status were described by
R. H. Mathews. Among the Bidawal, this common rite was called the . Given the relative scarcity of food resources to sustain incomers, the gathering Bidawal conducted their variation of the ceremony rapidly. The hosting Bidawal would prepare the ceremonial ground while messengers alerted distant tribes to present themselves for the occasion. On their arrival, the presiding elders would call out the prominent landscape features of each tribe as they settled variously on grounds cleared for their respective camps. The initiated men would then conduct a (closed consultative assembly) to arrange the details of the forthcoming ceremony, the preceptors (
bulluwrung) for the novices and the men who would orchestrate proceedings, collectively known as the
kuringal. At around midday, the boys would begin to be decked out by their mothers and sisters with the body paint and feathered headdress proper to each tribe's customs, and, by late afternoon, would be led to sit on bark or leave-green boughs, heads bent down, in a cleared space some distance from the ceremonial ground proper, each mother marking the spot with her yamstick, as songs were droned. At this stage they were now called
dhurtungurrin. The men, likewise dressed out now arrive, at a trot, in single file, while beating the ground a piece of bark, and, forming a curved row before the novices, start a rhythmic beating of the ground in a wave from end to end and back. After this, the boys return with their mothers to their respective women's camps (
burrikin). The day after, a body of men trail out to a site some 300–400 metres away, clear it and strew the ground of the resulting horseshoe arena with foliage. Towards sunset, the boys and women, at some distance, stand in the beating ground they occupied the day before, as the warriors return, armed with twigs or switches stripped of their leaves (
deddelun), and, having distributed a portion of the
deddelun to women nearby, encircle the boys, and toss the twigs and shorn boughs, with the women, over the boys' heads. The lads are then raised on men's shoulders, and breath in and out deeply as they sway, which earns them a congratulatory shout. Thereupon, they are led to the horseshoe enclosure, with women bringing with them the
deddelun material. There the boys are obliged to lie on the leaf beds, and, covered over with foliage, told to remain motionless and speechless. If they feel the call of nature, they must do it without moving. Fires are lit near their feet to keep them warm. Throughout the night, the women, followed by the men, circle round the enclosure singing a tune no one can understand, while beating the
deddelun, the purpose being to lull the boys into a drowsy sleep. Just after daybreak a
turndun (
bullroarer is heard, a signal for the women to leave and set up a new camp somewhere distantly. The elders and medicine men then get the boys to sit upright, and they are adorned with the tribal regalia of manhood, brow-band, a girdle round the waist, an apron and the like, while their heads were covered with an animal skin to stop them from seeing anything. Each
bulluwrung then takes charge of his boy, and the leafy site is set on fire, until all, including the
deddelun, is burnt off. The novices are then led off to a camp distant several miles away, where they must again observe silence, with heads bowed. Once separated from the women, they are given detailed knowledge of edible and taboo foods, but additional knowledge about plants is also provided by the womenfolk when they return to that company During the following days the men hunt, sometimes bringing the initiands with them, and allowing them to partake of choice morsels. Of an evening, theatrical scenarios mimicking acts like hunting for wombats or scaring possums out of trees take place. On the afternoon of the final day, the boys are made to sit, still with their head coverings, while a set of
kuringal, their bodies greased and covered with charcoal stand off, with grotesque headwear, 20 paces in front of the boys, and a bullroarer is swung. Each is then approached by an elder, rubbed with the bullroarer, and told, always by a man from a different tribe than his own, never to reveal the secrets he has observed, on pain of death. The boys are then led to the women's camp to endure an ordeal by smoke. The following day, the tribes dispersed, each taking a graduate of the ceremony from a neighbouring tribe, who then undergoes
scarification and taught further traditions. ==History==