16S RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



field River 4 no moral principles are inculcated during the 

 initiation performances ; if anything, the novice is let into a few 

 of the swindles, etc., and the reasons for practising them to his 

 own advantage and self-preservation — at any rate, a marked 

 change comes over the lad about this time, and whereas pre- 

 viously he could be taught and given explanations of certain 

 of the natural phenomena that might be brought under his notice, 

 it is almost futile to attempt doing so subsequently. On the 

 Tully River, apparently the one and only particular object of 

 the performance is the infliction of the belly-scars, without which 

 no man can marry. At Princess Charlotte Bay, throughout all 

 the many weeks that the performances continue, the novice learns 

 nothing special in the way of bush-craft, weapon-making, or any 

 thing else of use to him in the future ; all this he picks up as 

 best he can, as opportunity offers. In all cases, however, the 

 novice has two or three virtues inculcated into him, viz., obedience 

 to and respect for his elders, and self-control : with what profit, 

 however, remains to be seen. 



It is noteworthy that many of the dances relative to animals 

 and plants which are performed specially at the initiation cere- 

 monies may be re-enacted here and there on occasions of ordinary 

 rejoicing as the common corrobboree, e.g., the Crocodile Dance of 

 the Pennefather River. 5 



2. It is quite possible that subsequent enquiry may show that 

 the various dances representing the antics of the different animals 

 or the growth of certain plants, which as will be seen are through- 

 out Northern Queensland more or less intimately connected with 

 the initiation ceremonies, bear relationship to the Totemic per- 

 formances described by Messrs. Gillen and Spencer in Central 

 Australia. By Totemism I understand a certain connection 

 between an animal or plant, or group of animals or plants, and an 

 individual or group of individuals respectively, and judged by 

 this standard, the only Totemism discoverable throughout North 

 Queensland is that met with in the animals, etc., forbidden to 

 the different exogamous groups, and to a far less degree to women 

 and children generally, and to the novices temporarily at the 

 initiation ceremonies. 6 But such Totemism as this is explicable, 

 as I have already shown, 7 on the more rational grounds of food- 

 supply, to regulate the proper distribution of the total quantity 



4 According to Mr. R. Hislop, who has spent most of his life there. 

 "Roth— Bull. 4 — Sect. 26 (d), pis. xxxiii., xxxiv. 

 a Roth — Bull, xi., part 1. Tabu and other forms of Restriction. 

 'Roth— Ethnol. Studies, etc., 1897— Sect. 71. 



