74 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



12. Menstruation^. — In the Boulia and Cloncurry Districts, a 

 woman during the menstrual period (PPT. kimba-maro=blood- 

 possessor) keeps strictly to herself out of camp, and will not 

 even walk along the same tracks as the men. On the Tully 

 River she ties a bark blanket round her waist but takes no 

 measures to prevent the dischax'ge soiling her thighs ; anything 

 however that is soiled with whafe comes away from her is planted 

 up in the fork of a tree'^. She occupies the hut which the 

 husband now vacates for another, though as often as not he will 

 now camp in the open, on the further side of the tire. The 

 males here are said to be frightened at touching women in this 

 condition not only on account of the smell but also for fear of 

 some of the discharge getting on to their persons. On the 

 Bloomtield River she lives in camp under the same roof as her 

 husband, but both here and in other localities where it is not 

 customary for her to betake hex'self away, a fire .separates 

 husband and wife. On the Pennefather River, though remain- 

 ing in camp, both she and lier male partner take every precaution 

 that he neither touches nor steps over anything that passes from 

 her. Everywhere a woman in this condition is unclean and 

 tabu, and may be even more carefully avoided than the mother- 

 in-law ; she generally cooks for herself at a separate tii'e whether 

 living in the camp or out of it. 



13. Pregnancy and Labour. — During the latter nionths of 

 pregnancy, a North-West District woman will often rub over her 

 breasts and body .some warm powdered ashes with the idea of 

 making the child healthy and strong. All through the period, 

 no restrictions are imposed upon her, but in other districts, her 

 eating certain dietaries will produce various deformities in the 

 child^*^. In the neighbourhood of Cspe Bedford the vomiting 

 of pregnancy is certainly known. When the confinement is 

 about to take place, the expectant mother invariably betakes 

 herself to a secluded spot at some distance from the camp, and is 

 attended on by her mother or mother's sister (Princess Charlotte 

 Bay, Musgrove and Morehead Rivers), by her mother-in-law 

 (Pennefather River), by an old woman friend, sometimes by no 

 one at all. Alone, in one district (the Upper Georgina), the 

 husband though not in attendance, may be present at the confine- 

 ment ; very old men are similarly privileged in the Leichhardt- 

 Selwyn area, but never young men or boy.s. 



" Roth— Bull. 5— Sects. 89, 00. 



"Compare the disposal of a child's excrement (Roth — Bull. 5 — Sect. 

 80.) 



1" Rotli— Bull. 5— Sect. 95. 



