The rites may be described in one word as impressive.
Society wishes to set a stamp on their characters, and believes in stamping hard.

Physically, then, the lads feel the force of society.
A tooth is knocked out, they are tossed in the air to make them grow tall, and so on--rites that, whilst they may have separate occult ends in view, are completely at one in being highly unpleasant.
Spiritual means of education, however, are always more effective than physical, if designed and applied with sufficient wisdom.

The bull-roarer, of which something has been already said, furnishes the ceremonies with a background of awe.

It fills the woods, that surround the secret spot where the rites are held, with the rise and fall of its weird music, suggestive of a mighty rushing wind, of spirits in the air.

Not until the boys graduate as men do they learn how the sound is produced.