40 RKCORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Ill the Upper Georgina area, at Headingly, the Yaro-inga 



females wear tlie Opossum-twine apron-belt, the murrtara, either 



round the waist or neck, the males donning it as a necklace. 



There is a male corrobboree waist-apron belt found in the 



district around the Batavia River, with the apron 



portion formed of Pandanus strips (fig. 24), attached 



to the top-string in a manner different to what 



has been found anywhere else in Queensland ; it 



would be interesting to learn what the arrangement 



'^' ■ is in the corresponding New Guinea female article. 



37. Hip and Tail Pieces. — Throughout the North Western 

 Districts, in times of corrobboree and other occasions for re- 

 joicing, and on wife-hunting expeditions, etc., certain ornaments 

 are tixed or rather suspended from the waist-skein in the oase of 

 males only. Thus, the pingkara of the Boulia Natives is a bunch 

 of Eagle-hawk feathers tied tightly round at their shafts into the 

 form of a feather-duster and attached by the quill-end on either 

 side of the skein so as to dangle over each hip; it is called a 

 wan-pa by the Cloncurry boys, who let it hang down in the 

 central line behind instead of at the sides. The Boulia tilyeri 

 is a similarly bound bundle of Emu-feathers^*, but attached so 

 as to fall between the fold of tiie buttocks ; on the Upper 

 Georgina River, the Yaro-inga may stick this bundle (kwalla- 

 kwalla) up\»'ards behind, such a ))Osition indicating the sign of 

 sexual connexion when the wearer comes to steal a woman. 

 The Opossum-string tassel (MAL. niitin) may similarly be sus- 

 pended posteriorly on the Tully River ; at other times it may be 

 seen worn over the chest hanging from a neck-string. On the 

 Tully River stuck upwards into the belt behind is the ombir, an 

 ornament made out of White or Black Cockatoo, Scrub-tuikey 

 or Scrub-hen tail and wing feathers ; the pinnae are pulled down 

 on each side of the barb, and the barbs then tied up into a 

 bundle, which when com])lete makes the whole article look 

 something like a feather-duster. It forms a portion of the 

 special fighting costume"^ ^. 



38. Genitalia. — '^Lhe. epilation of the pubic hair was practised 

 by both sexes on the Proserpine River, but by females only, on 

 the Lower Tully River. At Brisbane, most of the old women, 



** Practically identical with the fly-flicks described in Bull. 7 — Sect. 48. 



^^ At tlie Brisl)ane initiation ceremony, the Kippas wore a "tail- 

 business" calleil wonggiii (7'. Petrie). [The death of Mr. T. PetJ'ie, so 

 often (|Uot('d in these pat/es, lias just taken place at Brisbane in liis 80th 

 year. Me was one of the tiist settlers in tliat <listii':t, and a local autiiority 

 on Aboriginal liahits and customs. 1 



