76 . RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



buried, or more generally destroyed by tire. In other districts, 

 the cord is both tied and cut — tied with Opossum-twine (in the 

 North-West), cane-stiip (Lower Tully River), and hacked 

 asunder with stone or sliell. Its ultimate fate is either to he 

 buried with the after-birth (Tully Eiver), to be destroyed by fire 

 (Bloomfield River), to decorate the infant, to be presented to 

 certain relatives, or to tabu certain articles in the neighbourhood 

 of which it may be placed. Aroimd Princess Charlotte Bay the 

 only area where 1 (ind it customaiy to tie the cord (KKA. 

 bo-ra) in two places, it is forcibly pulled away from the after- 

 birth (KRA. nai-vina) and fixed around the infant's waist. On 

 the Bloomiield River it is similarly dragged off so as to ol>tain 

 the gieatest continuous length possiWe, and left for quite twelve 

 dajs or a fortnight hanging lound the baby's neck, or coiled 

 around its neck and arm-pit ; if at the end of this time it has not 

 rotted away from off the infant, it is removed and burnt close 

 by. At Cape Bedford, the cord^'- is tied up in a coil and hung 

 on a string round the child's neck, where it is worn for some 

 time, it being finally presentetl to the father's father if a boy, 

 to the mother's father, if a girl ; should either of these old men 

 place it upon a heap of yams, etc., this would be rendered tabu 

 from everybody else except the other grandfathers. In the 

 Upper Georgina area, the navel-string is wound into a ball or 

 roll and forwarded by messenger, at the instance of the father, 

 to his relatives and friends in the neighbouring camps whence 

 presents will now come pouring in. At Cape Grafton the navel- 

 string may be sent round with similar objects in view by tying 

 pieces of it in a waist-circlet. On the l*ennefather River the 

 placenta, which is buried at birth, is credited with being con- 

 nected with the vital principle^-. Here, when the portion of 

 cord finally falls off baby, it is covered with beeswax, wra))ped 

 around with bark, and carried in the mother's dilly-bag ; she 

 does not bury it until such time as the little one begins to toddle, 

 because were she to make away with it previously, the inf«nt 

 would surely die, 



Confinemetits are easily got over ; I remember in particular 

 the case of a woman who walking from Cooktown to Cape Bed- 

 ford, a distance of twenty-five miles, was confined the same day, 

 and then started the following morning for Cape Flattery*^. 



^^ The local name for the placenta is bonor, i.e, a aliig. 



'2 Foth-Bull. r> Sect. 08. 



'•'• Amongst the Brisbane natives, immediately the placenta had come 

 away, the mother would go into the water, provided the confinement took 

 place in the day-time ; if at night, she would wait until the following 

 mornint; (T. Petrie). 



