NOKTII QUKKNMl-AM) KTIINU*; KAPII V— liOTII . 2T 



together with two ties, at places more or less opposite. As 

 usual, they are coloured red and j^reased. 8iiij,de Opossuiu-striiig 

 circlets are also common along the Lower Gulf of Carpentaria 

 coast-line, where as a general rule they are left free from both 

 pigment and fat ; like the fillets of the same material elsewhere, 

 they are ninde by men onl}^ but heie also u.>ed l)y men alone. 

 GUN. minganda. On the Pennefather River Human-hair rope, 

 NGG. prallatana, is manufactured by women for the use of the 

 young men at initiation, when it is tied round the head. 



13. Fill-el; Dingo-tail. — In the Boulia District, a Dingo-tail 

 may sometimes be worn over the forehead like a fillet and tied 

 by strings at the back ; sometimes feather-tufts may be stuck, 

 and so supported in position, underneath it. The Dingo-tail was 

 also worn by the Brisbane males, who called it gilln ; used at 

 corrobborees, fights, and first put on at the initiation ceremony. 

 A twine fillet-band was similarly employed by the men. Tied 

 round the forehead of the Kippas at the Kippa ceremony, and 

 worn neither before nor after, was the snake-throttle which, 

 after being cut out would be slit open and wound round a stick 

 to keep it flat, when not in nse fT. Pelrie). 



14. Fillet ; Eel-bone. — The Eeel-bone ornament (MAL. wakai) 

 of the Tully River and neighbourhood is formed of two such bones 

 attached (fig. 15), with their concavities inwai'ds, 

 into a blob of beeswax. Several of such units may 

 be attached to a length of filjre-twine, and tied across 

 the forehead at the back of the head ; sometimes, it /fj \Vv 

 may be fixed and used as a necklace, while on ' ' \^i 

 occasion a unit by itself may be seen attached to the 

 fore-lock. 



15. Fillet; Nautilus-shell. — The Keppel Islanders Fi^Tis. 

 used to string together a few comparatively-large 

 irregularly ovate pieces of Nautilus (yellnm), each unit drilled 

 with two holes, and tie the end at the back of the head, the 

 shells resting over the forehead of the men ; amongst the 

 Whitsunday Island and Cape Grafton folk I also saw true 

 fillets similarly made with double-drilled pieces, but I have never 

 met with them anywhere else. In all three cases the-se ornaments 

 were also worn as necklaces by the women. Elsewhere, the 



individual units composing these shell 

 fillets are drilled with a single aperture, 

 through which the double-strand connect- 

 ing string is woven on a chain-twist 

 '^' ■ pattern. As a general rule, the units are 



cut rectangular (hg. 16) on the Peninsula and Eastern Coast-line 



