According to The Native Tribes of Central Australia by Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, the operation of Ariltha is regarded as being of at least equal importance to circumcision. Unlike the latter, however, women are completely excluded and are not allowed to take any part in it.

The person upon whom the rite is to be performed lies at full length on his back on top of the Tapunga. Another man then sits astride his body, grasps the penis, and puts the urethra on the stretch. The operator approaches and quickly lays open the urethra from below with a stone knife.

Following this, the initiate, having now passed the Avakurta stage, becomes an Ertwa-kurka, or initiated man. The initiates are led to one side to squat over shields, allowing the blood to drain into them. After this, the Okilia men come to him and tie the pubic tassels on. They tell him that he is now Ertwa-kurka, that he has no more operations to fear, and that he has been admitted to the ranks of the men.

Based on the study, here are the ways in which the Didgeridoo was used by the Aborigines of Australia:

• It was a way to fill the heavy, humid air with sound during moments of rest. It was played intermittently, “blowing occasionally,” a backdrop to the scene rather than the focus (Retribution, 1908).
• It was part of the Aboriginal soundscape, a “droning noise” as earlier described by Roderick J. Flanagan in The Aborigines of Australia, that, as Herbert Basedow noted in The Australian Aboriginal, could be heard for miles around in the stillness of the night, signaling the presence and pace of life in the north.
• Sir Baldwin Spencer documented their crucial function in the initiation ceremonies of the Northern Territory.

The “didgeridoo” is made of wood. This wood can be either bamboo (all the sources agree on this), woolly-butt eucalyptus, or the green stem of a native hibiscus bush (according to Herbert Basedow). Spencer, in his recordings of Australian Aboriginal singing also mentioned trumpets can be “made out of a hollow branch of gum trees, ironwood etc.” 

A typical didgeridoo size varies from 2 to 9 feet long. Roderick Flanagan describes it as having “about three feet in length” and Spencer said “it measured 7-9 feet in length.” Spencer also reported a trumpet which was “five feet in length” and had a diameter at larger end of 2.5 inches and 2 inches at the mouth while Basedow asserts that it should be “four to five feet long” which aligns with the trumpet observed in Native Tribe of the Northern Territory of Australia.

The mouthpiece was often refined for comfort and to create a proper seal. Spencer observed that “as a general rule, the mouth end is coated with wax so that the lips can fit on tightly,” a detail also mentioned in the Native Tribes of Central Australia that the end is “covered with a circle of resin so as to make the margins smoother.”

The external surface was frequently decorated, transforming it into a personal and cultural artifact. Spencer in the Native Tribes of Central Australia described two such decorated instruments in his possession: one was ornamented with “alternate circles of yellow ochre and white kaolin,” while the other featured “two rings of white kaolin” connected by longitudinal lines.”

Herbert Basedow called it a “bamboo trumpet”, “drone-pipe” or “didjeridoo.” Sir Baldwin Spencer in his analysis of recordings of the Australian Aboriginal singing suggested the more specific term “conch,” drawing a comparison to shell trumpets despite it being made of wood or bamboo, noting it was “commonly called a trumpet by the whites, but really a kind of conch, made out of a hollow bough.”

Spencer, in his analysis of recordings, referred to the work of Roth, who documented the term “yiki-yiki” for a long wooden trumpet used in areas of the Cape York Peninsula. In his own documentation of Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia, Spencer also listed the sacred names “jiboulu” for the everyday trumpet and its ritual counterpart, “Purakakka.”

From Central Australia, Spencer and Gillen described the “ilpirra” (or “ulpirra”), a shorter, rudimentary tube used in love-magic ceremonies, which they distinguished as a “rudimentary trumpet” that was sung through to intensify the voice rather than played with vibrating lips.

The name “didgeridoo” was first used in a 1908 newspaper account “Retribution,” where it was written as “did-gery-do,” phonetically capturing the rhythmic sound heard on a Northern Territory cattle run. The term simply did not exist in print until the early 20th century.