254 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, 



the opening as just anterior to the scrotum and from one to one and 

 a-half inches long, or the whole of the posterior wall of the urethra 

 is removed. It is performed both at about the age of puberty, or 

 at a more advanced period of life. 



We now know that this slitting of the ui^ethra is practised by 

 the West Kimberley Aborigines, for Mr. W. W. Froggatt* noticed 

 it during his recent collecting tour there. He says that the lads 

 are first circumcised about the age of nine or ten, then " about 

 five years later, the young men undergo a much more severe rite, 

 namely the slitting of the urethra, which is conducted with fui'ther 

 mysteries." 



Next to that of Dr. Robertson, probably the most complete 

 account of the " Mika " operation emanated from the pen of the 

 late M. Miklouho-Maclay, and it is much to be regretted that 

 a copy of his paper f does not exist in Sydney ; at any rate, I have 

 been unable to find one. 



Lastly, Lumholtz has figured; the " Mika-"knife used by the 

 natives of the Georgina River. He states that it does not arise 

 from a desire to limit population in consequence of a scarcity of 

 food, but from an objection on the part of parents to being 

 troubled with too many children, although he rather contradicts 

 this view by stating that in some tribes the children are operated 

 on. Lumholtz has ascertained that the rite is practised by the 

 tribes west of the Diamantina River, and west and north of the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria. § 



Unlike the method described by Dr. Cox, the Georgina River 

 blacks are said by Lumholtz to cut an aperture only an inch long 

 at the base of the penis, the edges of the wound being burnt with 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1888, III., Pt. 2, p. 652. 

 t "Ueber die Mika-Operation in Central Australien." Zeitsch. fiirEthnol. 

 (Verhandl.) 1880, XII., p. 85. 



t " Among Cannibals," &c., 1890, p. 48. 



§ Ihid. p. 47, note. I presume north of the Gulf of Carpentaria would 

 mply Cape York. 



