NORTH <iUBKiNSLAND KTHNOCJKAPIIY — ROTJI. 77 



15. Noted on ^6«c»/-ma/tV-tes-. -Baliluess in old people i.s the 

 exception; out of four Imndred aiid ten -natives met with in 

 the neighbourhood of Princess Charh)tte Bay, only two old men 

 were thus characterised (Jurliness of hair is particularly marked 

 amongst the Tidly River Scrub-Blacks as compared with the 

 coastal ones who have it more waved. A more or less wavy 

 condition is prevalent throughout the North Western Districts. 

 The only case of erythrism known to nie on the Blootntield River 

 was that of a little boy ; indeed, only three other instances, and 

 these amongst the TuUy Natives, were come across during all my 

 travels in Northern Queensland. They were Narro, a lad about 

 eight or nine years, in the local camp on Brooke's Selection, 

 Kachula now (Aug. 1900) on the Johnstone River, as well as 

 his two full-blooded children, a boy and a giil. Red-hair is 

 looked upon by these Mallanpara Blacks as a disgrace, and 

 ridiculed when noticed in Europeans ; the local belief is tliat a 

 person so adorned has a hot temper. In the far North Western 

 Districts, I have noticed a fine growth of hair, over the entire 

 body, including the buttocks, especially amongst the women. A 

 peculiarity of want of pigmentation in the hands and feet (Pl.xxiii., 

 fig. I) has been seen in two cases from Princess Charlotte Bay. 

 One example of simple hare-lip, was observed in a male on the 

 Embley River, and one single example of goitre (? malignant) in 

 a Kalkadun woman at Cloncurry(Pl. xxiii.,fig. 2). Left-handedness 

 is fairly common. In one case at Cape Bedford, where not existent 

 in the parents, the four soris are all left handed. Congenital club- 

 foot is not rare ; amongst four hundred and ten natives around 

 Princess Charlotte Bay, there were three cases noticed ; one of 

 these was of the left, another of the right, and one of both feet. 

 An allied deformity was seen in two old men in the neighbour- 

 hood of Barrow Point, and in Palmer the old chief of the Wakka 

 people at Gladstone. Ln all three cases the soles could rest 

 perfectly fiat as on the gun-case in PI. xxiv.,fig. 1, the malformation 

 evidently residing only in the metatarsus and phalanges. The 

 two old Barrow Point folk were brothers, the younger being 

 deformed only in the left foot, similarly to what both parents are 

 stated to have been. A kind of hammer-toe is very prevalent, 

 more in the females than males, around Cape Grafton and the 

 Mulgrave Kiver District generally. At Cape Grafton the fourth 

 toes of both feet are affected (PI. xxiv., tin. 2), on theTuUy River 

 the third (PI. xxiv., fig. 3) and fourth (PI. xxiv., tig. 4), in both 

 areas the peculiarity appearing to run in families. The names of 

 the individuals underlined in the following genealogical trees, 

 indicate those who bear (1902) the deformity : — 



