28 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



but oval on the Lovver Gulf shores. It is true that oval ones are 

 occasionallymetwith around Cairns, ('archvell and tlieTiilly River, 

 but there is re^son to believe that they have been bartered from 

 the Caipentaria coast, via the ranges and the Mitchell River. 

 Worn by the men as fillets, by the women as necklaces^, at the 

 Bloonifield River, Cape Bedford, and Princess Charlotte B^y. 

 By the time that the Princess Charlotte Bay specimens are 

 barterel to the Middle Palmer, via the Musgrave River, they 

 are worn by both men and women as necklaces only. Local 

 names: KYI. (Cape Bedford) dirl-ngar, KYE. jil-nga, KMI. 

 ni-ra. 



16. Fillet; Toad-stool. — The only fillet of vegetable origin 

 that I know of is that composed of pieces of the Red Toad stool 

 {Polystictiis cinnahariufis, Fries), used by the women at Ke[>pel 

 Island^. 



17. E(ir-inercing ; Ear-7'ings. — The piercing of the ears would 

 appear to be [leculiar to the Cape York Peninsula. On the east 

 coast it has been observed as far south as the Tally River, but 

 the practice is said to have iieen acquired here within recent 

 years through the South Sea Islanders and becliede-mer fishing- 

 boats. Captain Cook's voyage^ ^ has a record from the En- 

 deavoui- River, where the natives were said to " have holes in 

 their ears, but we never saw anything worn in them." I have 

 observed it from Princess Charlotte Bay northwards, in nules 

 only, and also with nothing worn, the right ear at Saltwater 

 Rivei-, the left on the Princess Charlotte Bay coast-line, and lioth 

 at Night Island. Occasionally, the aperture may be so aitifici- 

 ally enlarged {e.g. at the Coen River) as to allow of the loop) so 

 produced being thrown forwaids over the whole organ. On the 

 Gull side, e.g. Pennefather and Embley Rivers, the males also 

 alone have both their ears pierced, and may wear ear-rings which 

 could however be more correctly described as tubes (PL ix., fig. 1), 

 they being as much as two and a quarter inciies external diameter 

 and over four inches long. Such a tube (NGG. wa amanu) is made 

 from the Bomhax malabaricnvi, De Cand.(NGG. baiperi),the core of 

 which is hollowed out with a kangaroo-bone awl, the exterior being 

 subsequently smoothed over with the rough leaves of Ficus orbi- 

 cularis, -cind finally ])ainted reil. In the North-Western Districts, 



8 Sect. 35. 



" Lumholtz figures a complicated hrow-l)and from the Central Queens- 

 land coast, but I have never found anytliing like it (Among Cannibals, 

 p. 331.) 



^° Hawkeswortli's edition, London, 1773, p. 208. 



