QUEENSLAND ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES—HAMLYN-HARIilK. ^ 



full, and the herbage green. She took up her residence just above ^vhere the Plains 

 homestead now stands, and finding food in plenty lived there alone. One day as 

 she was walking along the creek she passed another kind of shrub with big seed- 

 pods, and lo, as she passed, one of these seed-pods opened and out of it came a fine 

 .voung blackfellow, whom she greeted gleefully and invited to her camp on the 

 lagoon, and there he remained with her and they Hved happily as man and wife 

 In due time she bore a piccaninny, and that A^•as the beginning of the aboriginal 

 race, or at any rate of the Mumgooburras.^ 



SUPERSTITION AND MAGIC (illustrated by specimens in the Queensland Museun. collections,. 



\\'omen in the uppef part of the Cape York Peninsula (Pemiefather River 



district) wear string necklaces ornamented with inter^^•oven bird feathers and douii 



in sign oi mourning, while the old women regard them as charms and firmly believe 



*p'* ' vf,/'" ''^'' '" ^'''^'"* '^^ 'P^"*' ^""^ ^'^kness from approaching them 

 ll-late yin, fig. C). The ornamentation of the necklaces is not restricted to any 

 particular kind of feather. We have several in which feathers from other bird, 

 such as the mountain parrot for instance, have been used. 



Similar charms are to be found in various parts of Queensland, particularly 

 in the North and Western districts, in the shape of human hair cord.r but these are 

 mostly used to cUspel pain or sickness. Such instances as have come under my notice 

 are-(l) Human-ha.r t^ine worn by both males and females for tying round the 

 affected parts (Q. E. 14/283, Western Queensland) ; (2) Similar example from 

 Palmer River employed for aU kinds of pain and sickness (Q. E. 14/279) • (3) 4s a 

 charm against headache on the Mitchell River* (Q. E. 15/732). 



In our collections we have quite a number of mourning string ornaments 

 whrch have been prepared as a circlet, and represent a chain and overcast variety of 

 stringwork. Samples were procured from the following locahties :-Bentinck Island 

 Roth), Maj^own (Roth), Bathurst Head (Roth), Butcher Hill (Roth), Cardwell 

 (18/9, collector unknown) ; also a plain mourning string, looped and worn by women 

 only, comes from Maji^wn (Roth). 



« I am indebted to Mr. J. R. Chisholm^aTri^Tabidand, fo;this";;rsro,^t^;;~ro7ti;; 

 "at.ve race, h>s ,nforn.ant being an old man who d.ed some 35 years ago. 



their ^J:^''^'"' *° '-''''' ''-' '"-'- ^P-^-- -'^ -- ^y i"'^-*ed men to show 

 « In referring to these medicinal charms, reference should here be briefly made to the emu 



o 1 led bT ?;' *° ':' '''■ ^°"'' '^ ''"''- '^'-- °^ "-'''^'^ ^^ - °- -Section ^d^ 

 o leeted by Inm at Carandotta, and .s marked as ■• a roll of emu feathers placed on parts affecled 

 foi aches and pams." See paragraph 154, Roth. W. K, N. Q. Ethnography, No. 5 1903 



