NOKTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 19 



Part II. 

 Counting and Enumeration. 



In a previous Bulletin 4 mention is made of the so-called tourna- 

 ments held in the Cardwell and other districts throughout the 

 year, except at flood-time, the variations in the number of days 

 between successive performances and the interesting fact that the 

 blacks have special terms for enumerating the days in the interval. 

 The distances to be traversed, other engagements elsewhere, the 

 control of the food supplies, etc., are some of the factors which 

 make it very important that no mistakes should be made as to the 

 dates fixed upon, the liability to error being increased through 

 some of the camps having irregular intervals. Thus, in 1901, on 

 the Lower Tully River, the prun was held either every seventh 

 or thirteenth day from the termination of the last preceding, but 

 on the upper portions of the same river it was on the eighth or 

 thirteenth; while in the neighbourhood of Cairns the Yidinji Blacks 

 would seem to have held them pretty regularly on the twelfth 

 day. As often happened, owing, perhaps, to a case of homicide 

 consequent on the fighting, or to a good season with plentj 

 food, the performance might either be shorter or longer than 

 usual, and a good deal of unnecessary quarrelling and bickering, 

 through some of the visitors arriving too early and others too Late, 

 was prevented by fixing names to the days in the intervals. 

 This was the explanation given to account for this primitive kind 

 of calendar, which lasted throughout the performances, i.e., the 

 whole of the dry season. It must be admitted, however, that not 

 only was this calendar shifted, but that it might be shorter or 

 longer. However, as it referred to time when solely in connection 

 with the performances, the arrangement made but little practical 

 difference. 



When a prun is completed, the old men will arrange amongst 

 themselves as to when and where the next is to be held, and a 

 messenger will be sent to the different camps to tell them they 

 are expected at such and such a place on a certain day. But 

 many of the larger camps in the neighbourhood have their own 

 calendar, which is similarly always being altered, so that the 

 names of the days will, perhaps, not correspond. To 

 obviate all mistakes, the messenger employs at least three 

 methods to make matters clear — the message-stick, the fern-frond, 

 and where it is understood, by mnemonics with the hand. The 

 Yidinji Blacks apparently used all three. The stick is employed 



* Roth— Bull. 4— Sect. 15. 



