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Volume 5 19 |
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A–Z |  |
FINAL ORDEAL BY ROASTING IN THE INITIATION OF YOUNG BEARDS INTO TRIAL SECRETS
| As a lad, the aborigine is tortured and mutilated by his elders in the early rites of initiation. When he is a grown man, he undergoes an ordeal of fourteen weeks of endurance, ending with a double roasting. He lies on a log fire for five minutes. The fire is then made hotter, and down he goes for another five minutes, rapidly twisting about to avoid serious burns. At middle-age there is even another severe test |