NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY. 



Bulletin No. 12. 



On Certain Initiation Ceremonies. 



By Walter E. Roth, Magistrate of the Pomeroon District, 

 British Guiana; late Chief Protector of Aborigines, Queens- 

 land ; Corresponding Member of the Anthropological 

 Societies, Berlin and Florence, the Anthropological Institute, 

 London, etc. 



(Plates L-lyL; Figs. 9-11.) 



Contents. 



Sect. 1. The why and wherefore of the Ceremonies p. 166 



2. Do the Initiation Dances bear relationship to certain Totemic 



Performances? ... p. 168 



3. Initiation on the Mclvor River p. 169 



4. ,, ,, Bloomrield River p. 176 



5. ,, ,, Tully River p. 177 



6. ,, at Princess Charlotte Bay ... ... ... p. 178 



7. ,, in the Rockhampton District ... ... ... p. 183 



1. I have been present at initiation ceremonies on the East 

 Coast (Princess Charlotte Bay, Mclvor River, etc.), and several 1 

 in the North-Western Districts; I cannot say that I have been 

 initiated into the latter, for the very good reason that I was not 

 prepared to submit myself to the necessary sexual mutilation, an 

 ordeal to which I am not aware that any European, however 

 keen on Anthropological Science, has hitherto allowed himself to 

 be subjected. 



Though various customs, e.g., marriage, scarring, nose-piercing, 

 certain food restrictions, a new name, social rank, etc., may here 

 and there depend upon initiation, very little of a definite nature 

 appears to be known of the why and wherefore of the ceremonies 

 at all, beyond the fact that the prevailing European idea of their 

 having a benifieently moral and educational value is erroneous. 

 At Cape Bedford, some of the old men told the Rev. Schwa rz- 

 and myself that initiation is a matter of custom, and still pre- 



'1'ei descriptions see Ethnol. Studios, etc., 1897 — Sect-. •_".>!» to 315. 

 ' 2 A gentleman who has lived upwards of 20 yeais among these people. 



