387 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 Bv PviciiD. Helms. 



(Commttnicdtpd hij the Secretary.) 



(Plates xxix.-xxx.) 



Introductory Remarks. 



The following notes are to a great extent compiled from com- 

 munications I ha\ e from time to time received from old settlers 

 who in their early days frequently came in contact with the 

 Aborigines inhabiting the neighbourhood of their settlements, and 

 who remember the habits and customs of these extinct or 

 decaying tribes. Special thanks I owe to Mr. John Barry, Senr., 

 who settled on the Mowamba Ri^er more than forty years ago, 

 aiid from whose store of vivid recollections I have drawn a great 

 many of the facts now set down. 



It is to be regretted that the narratives are but fragmentary 

 yet I consider them sufficiently interesting to be recorded, more 

 especially on account of the comparisons that may be drawn 

 between the manners described and those of other Australian 

 tribes. 



I do not intend to dilate upon this subject, but merely wish 

 to remark that, viewing the manners and customs described from 

 a general aspect, it l^ecomes apparent that they are very similar, 

 and that they originated in common with those of the great bulk 

 of the other Australian aboriginal tribes. The tribes here spoken 

 of differed from most of their compatriots in the neglect of some 

 widespread customs rather than in the practice of peculiar rites. I 

 am alluding to the rites of circumcision and of the mika operation, 

 neither of which were practised by the tribes that lived in the 



