188. The Corrobboree (Pitta-Pitta wun-ni, Ulaolinya won-ni-na, Kalkadoon wa-ma, Undekerebina wun-tun-ya) consists of singing (Pitta-Pitta wun-ka-), accompanied by dancing (Pitta-Pitta e-cha-la-mul-le-) and accompaniments: throughout North-West-Central Queensland the performance has certain features in common.

189. (A) Time of Performance.—The corrobboree commences at sunset and may be continued until sunrise, the whole performance being extended sometimes over three, four, or even five nights consecutively. Exceptions to this rule of night performance are some unimportant local dances, or one danced by the women only, or the corrobboree for bringing up rain, &c., and those dependent upon certain of the initiation ceremonies: to these particular last-mentioned ones, described in sects. 294-297 and in chap. XIII., the following notes do not refer.

190. (B) Authorship and Plot.—Anybody may “find,” i.e., compose a corrobboree, and more often a “doctor” as not: sometimes it is alleged to have been found in a dream. The corrobboree may be held just for the sake of the amusement that is in itself afforded, and beyond the repetition of some simple statement or assertion may have no meaning whatsoever behind it (see Boulia songs in sect. 196): on the other hand, as on the Upper Georgina, at Roxburgh, Carandotta, and in the Cloncurry District, &c., a sort of pantomime relating to some event of individual interest or tribal importance may be enacted.