NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY ROTH. 13 



of obtaining reliable data is increased by the fact that either no 

 notice is taken of such an event, as at Cape Bedford, whereas 

 in other districts they may be destroyed, and the information 

 when sought for may prove unreliable. The only example I 

 have seen (July, 1900) was that of Mundy's gin at Nunnville, 

 via Cooktown, who had boy-twins, over twenty-four hours inter- 

 vening between the two births. On the other hand, during 

 1899, three cases of half-caste twins came under my personal 

 notice in the neighbourhood of Cooktown alone. That of 

 aboriginal Rosie 19 was extremely interesting: — On July 15th 

 at 10.15 p.m. the first half-caste daughter was born ; on July 

 18th at 5 a.m. a second one made her appearance, the two 

 separate placental being removed the same morning at 10 a.m.; 

 on July 22nd both infants were weighed, the elder turning the 

 scales at 3 lbs. and the younger at 4 lbs. 



Considering the population, triplets cannot be rare on the 

 Lower Tully River; the following four women have been reported 

 to me 20 as having proved themselves worth}' of receiving the 

 Queen's bounty : — Chur-ngoi (twins on a previous occasion), 

 Burakun, Ngunara, and Mau-uba. 



24. On the Lower Tully River infanticide is fairly common; 

 either sex is destroyed, and it is usually done by the mother. 

 The two main reasons given for the practice here are that the 

 child gave the mother too much pain and trouble in comins; into 

 the world, and that the mother does not want to be bothered 

 with it. In the case of twins, the mother will often keep one. 

 and kill the other by choking ; so also will she often kill a child 

 that is born with an}' deformity. Infanticide is not considered 

 in the light of any crime or offence, provided that it is done 

 within the first day or two of the child's existence. Further- 

 more, a child may here be killed for a crime committed by its 

 parents.- 1 At Cape Grafton infanticide, irrespective of sex, is 

 prevalent (I am only speaking up to 1898), and effected by just 

 throwing the baby into the water and letting it drown, or else 

 suffocating it by throttling, but though the practice is recognised 

 it is usually done clandestinely. On the Bloom field River 

 infanticide was never prevalent until the Europeans came and 

 half-caste children appeared, the father doing it by stamping 

 upon the child's chest (R. Hislop). At Cape Bedford the practice 

 may be resorted to when the children appear too quickly one 

 after the other. In the North-Western Districts infants may 



19 Under the care of Dr. Kortum. 



20 By Mr. E. Brooke. 



21 Roth— Bull. S— Sect. 2. 



