NOKTIl QUKKNSLANI) KTHNOfJHAPHY ROTH. 41 



rarely tlie 3oiinger, would cut off the pubic hair ; it was said to 

 be (lone for the convenience of the n)ales (T'. PetrieJ. 



Phallocrypts, only used by males at corrobborees and other 

 public rejoicings are formed (-ither of pearl-shell or opossum 

 twine. It is somewhat unfortunate that I introduced this 

 term to express certain objects met with in the Nortii Western 

 Districts which I was not then awaro were employed rather for 

 purposes of decoration than for concealment. 



The chikaleri is a flat, more or less oval, piece of pearl-shell, 

 three to four inches long, fixed with cement to a human-hair 

 twine vvliich in turn is attached to the middle of the waist-skein 

 in front so as to hang over the privates. This |>earl-shell which 

 I have only observed in the Leichhardt-Selwyn, Upper Georgina, 

 and Boulia Districts, comes into these parts from the head- 

 water country of the Georgina River, though from which portion 

 of the coast it is originally brouglit I have not been able to dis- 

 cover ; most probably through the Nassau and Staaten Blacks on 

 the Lower-eastern Gulf-coast, they obtaining it by barter from 

 further north. 



The kumpara is the Pitta-Pitta name for the Opossum-string 

 form of Phallocrpyt manufactured on exactly the same plan as 

 the munamalyeri necklace which is subsequently wound in a 

 spiral round itself, fixed in tliis position so as to form a kind of 

 tassel, coloured red, and is hung from the waist-skein in front. 

 Sometimes it is used in the hand as a fly-flick. It is manu- 

 factured in the Boulia, Leichhardt-Selwyn, and Cloncurry 

 Districts by males only ; the Kalkadun name for it is monaro, 

 and the Maitakudi one tungga. These latter people under the 

 same term tungga use a Phallocrypt in the form of two tassels 

 made of Opossum-string, joined by an intermediate portion which 

 suspends the article from the waist-skein ; the individual threads 

 of each tassel looped upon themselves, are upwards of a foot long. 



Tin-jinna is the Pitta-Pitta name for a sort of miniature kum- 

 j)ara which I have met with only in the 

 Boulia and Upper Georgina Districts 

 where the Yaro-inga folk of Headingly 

 call it pilya ; the method of attachment 

 is peculiar in that it is attached to the 

 pubic hair, while on the event of a cor- 

 robboree it may be painted white, the only 

 occasion on which an opossum-twine orna- 

 ment out in these areas is colouied other- Yig. 25. 

 wise than red. It is manufactured as 



follows ; — A coil of Opossum-twine is wound round the first 

 two or three fingers of the left hand (fig. 25) and tied on the 



