46 



RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Blacks use a kind of white mud (MAL. niarchila). Nowhere 

 does the process appear to disturb the general health, even when 

 the belly-cuts are made, the native will only admit that he feels 

 a bit stiff for a time. 



The dotted elevated scars on the arms I have witnessed beinpf 

 made among the Cloncurry Blacks as follows : — The individual 

 takes a small cold piece of charcoal, half an inch or so in height, 

 and places it on the spot where he intends the dotted scar to be, 

 and then puts a light to the top of it, which, after the preliminary 

 flame is extinguished, goes on glowing until the base is reached, 

 thus letting it burn out to a white ash, with the simultaneous 

 scorching and destruction of the subjacent skin ; in 

 two or three days the papule of cicatricial tissue begins to form. 

 I have tried this nietliod on myself without any raised scar 

 resulting, and I am more and more convinced that independently 

 of anything septic or not being rubbed into the wound, it is more 

 or less natural amongst these natives for the scar to become 

 raised.'^ ^ Similarly, in the case of a half-caste girl in my ehiploy 

 who met with an accidental burn on the wrist and hand, a very 

 elevated scar resulted within the subsequent ten weeks. 



44. On the Pennefather River the scars (NGG. ga-ni) aie 

 similar in men and women. As a rule, these natives do not make 

 them for themselves ; married men cut them for the single 

 boys, husbands for their wives. Fig. 28, '28a-d, repiesent the 

 more common patterns on the chest and shoulders. On the 



4 



\<.y^ 



Fig. 28. 



Fig. 28a. 



Fig-. 2S&. 



Fig. 28c. 



Fig-. 28d. 



belly, are a series of transverse ones but these are rarely to be 

 seen below the navel ; on the back one or two transverse ones 

 are occasionally to be seen across the lines ; again, there is often 

 a short one or two on the thighs. 



45. Amongst the Koko-minni of the Middle Palmer River, in 

 front, with both males and females, the usual ))attern consists of 

 transverse scars across tlie lower chest and upper abdomen, 

 vertical ones on the shoulders, and small vertical ones together 



*" Mr. T. Petrie, who saw Davis, the convict(" Darramboi"), when he 

 came in after being fourteen years with the natives, tells nie that none of 

 ^is decorative scars were raised. 



