Eruertpce—Some [nplements, etc., of the Alligator Tribe, Port Essington. 243 
size, therefore, the trumpets are probably made of 4. arnkemica.* They are 
all about the same length and appear to be very difficult for the uninitiated to 
blow, but from the notes Mr. Stockdale was able to produce, must be very sonorous. 
The noise is very like that given forth by the South Sea Island Conch ( 77zton 
nodiferus, Linn. ). 
The longest tube, three feet three inches, is straight (PI. xxx. fig. 7), with the 
nodes of the bamboo picked out in red, the proximal end coloured red, white and 
blue, in a more or less diagonal pattern. The internodes are covered with incised 
checker-work. 
The tube intermediate in length (three feet one inch) between the last and the 
smallest is slightly curved. The proximal twelve inches is covered with what 
appears to be white-lead paint, thence upwards many of the internodes are elaborately 
carved, chiefly with incised checker-work arranged in rings, squares, or oblong 
spaces. Near the distal end one internode is nearly covered by vertical zig-zag lines. 
The smallest tube (Pl. xxx1. fig. 6) is also curved, and much more highly carved 
than either of the preceding. Near the centre is an internode with a zig-zag pattern, 
and on some of the others are designs of a peculiar and indefinite character. This 
tube is three feet long. 
Dr. Coppingert saw in a camp of the Larikia Tribe at Port Darwin the natives 
“producing a rude burlesque of music out of pieces of hollow reed, about four feet 
long, which they blew like cow-horns.” This is the only reference I have been able to 
find referring even probably to the use of these instruments. 
Betts. 
The belts used by the Alligator Tribe are highly ornate at the outer ends, and 
to a certain extent remind us of those used by the natives of some parts of New Guinea, 
Those now under notice are of ribbon-like wood, rigid, but at the same time easily 
bent in the direction of the grain, from five to nearly eight feet long, and elaborately 
coloured at the outer or exposed end. 
The largest is seven feet nine inches long, four inches wide, and weighs one 
pound four ounces. The coloured portion extends over a space of two feet seven 
inches, and the pattern consists of red and white lines in various curves and white 
checker-work, the white colours, as in nearly all these objects, being pipeclay 
fo) 
* Mr. Maiden has subsequently informed me that this tree grows to a height of from 30 to 50 feet, and four inches 
is a common diameter. It is found along the coast from Port Darwin, and probably extends to the Alligator Rivers. 
+ Voyage of the “ Alert,” 1883, p. 204. 
