80 



RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEl'M. 



by cutting nicks on it, each cut representing a clay, but contrary 

 to expectation I have never been able to find the passing of a day 

 indicated by the crossing of a cut. With the fern-leaf, it is split 

 in half, the number of leaflets left attached indicating the number 

 of days of the interval, a leaflet being folded on itself for each 

 day passed. On the Lower Tully River the intervening days are 

 borne in mind by the different parts of the palms and digits, as 

 follows, the messenger being able to explain to the various camps 



visited exactly how many days later they 

 are expected : — Opening his left hand the 

 reckoner names the first and second days 

 as he points to the spots respectively so 

 marked in the figure (fig. 6), the same 

 with the fourth, fifth and sixth ; and 

 now, with fingers all closed, he seizes 

 the extended thumb and mentions the 

 seventh, the date for which the next prun 

 has been appointed. But supposing that 

 it has been decided to hold the next per- 

 formance after an interval of thirteen 

 instead of seven days, the reckoner will 

 open his hand again and point respectively 

 to the spots numbered eight to thirteen, 

 the final day always ending with the 

 thumb, giving them names identical with 

 those already mentioned by him for the first to seventh days, 

 thus : — 



Fig. 6. 



1st day 

 2nd or 8th day 

 3rd or 9th day 

 1th or 10th day 

 5th or 1 1th day 

 fithorl2thday 

 7th or 13th day 



= chalgur 



chalgurodcabun 



meriri 



mono -chano 



moko-pulo 



karapo 



kari-unggol 



These words have no other significance, are absolutely distinct 

 from the terms indicative of number, and are only applied to a 

 day as a portion of the interval between the successive pruns, 

 the idea of time-when being otherwise always reckoned by the 

 number of sleeps. Amongst the blacks of the Upper Tully River 

 the performance was held either on the eighth or thirteenth day. 

 'he numbers referred to being shown in tig. 7, where the names 

 for the fourth and ninth, for the fifth and tenth, etc., are identical. 

 The Cairns Natives (the Yidinji), who had an interval of eleven 

 days between the performances, puloga as they called them there, 



