251 



NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE 

 WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. 



By R. Etheridge, Jun. 



(Paleontologist to the Australian Museum, and Geological 



Survey of New South Wales.) 



(Plates ix. and x., figs. 1-5.) 



i. — The Knife used by the Mulligan River (North Central Queens- 

 land) Aborigines in the "Mika Operation." 



I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. H. S. W. Crummer, of the 

 Department of Lands, for an opportunity of describing the stone 

 implement, or knife, used by the blacks of the Mulligan River in 

 performing the curious rite known as the " Mika," or, as it is 

 sometimes written " Mikaj " operation. Notwithstanding that 

 more than one reliable account has been published of it, there still 

 seems to be much scepticism and ignorance on the subject. I 

 have, therefore, endeavoured to bring together a brief account of 

 all that has been written on the subject before furnishing a des- 

 cription of the knife itself. The latter is the more necessary, for 

 quite recently Mr. Carl Lumholtz has figured a similar knife from 

 Georgina River, which differs to some extent from Crummer's 

 example. 



One of the first, if not absolutely the first, to notice the peculiar 

 custom or rite, known under the above name, appears to have 

 been the late Governor E. J. Eyre in 1840-41, during his explor- 

 ation of the country around the Great Australian Bight,* he at 

 that time being Resident Magistrate of the Murray River District. 



* "Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia," &c., 

 1840-41, 2 vols., London, 1845. 



