36 ABORIGINAL CUSTOMS IN NORTH QHEKNSLAND. 



Tn some instances the urethra is slit from the meatus to the- 

 scrotum ; in other cases the cleft extends only two or threa 

 inches from the glans ; and sometimes a perforation an inch or 

 more in length is made in the canal at the base of the scrotum. 

 The object of the rite appears to be connected with the initiation 

 of the subject operated upon into the privileges of a man of his 

 tribe, in the same way that the extraction of a tooth is practised 

 in other parts of the country. Various " white men's yarns " — 

 travellers' tales — have been told about this rite, but I want to. 

 collect exact and reliable details as to how the operation is per- 

 formed, the instruments used, the stopping of the bleeding, and 

 the subsequent treatment of the wound. 'fhe information 

 hitherto published is very meagre in regard to these points. 

 Sometimes the custom of circumcision is also found among those 

 tribes who slit the urethra. 



Rock Picturks.'' — The rock paintings of the natives are 

 met with in greater abundance in Northern Queensland than in 

 any other part of Australia. They are found on most, if not all 

 the rivers flowing into thu Gulf of Carpentaria, and also on the 

 rivers flowing towards the eastern coast. I have myself seen 

 them in difterent places, and on one occasion I met an old 

 blackfellow on the Dawson river who had seen the paintings 

 done when he was a youth. Rock carvings are said to be found 

 on the Batavia river, I and R. B. Smyth reports that "while 

 jNIr. Norman Taylor was exploring in Cape York Peninsula, he 

 found on the hardened earth flats at the back of a beach some 

 regularly drawn turtles cut out in outline. "{ 



Ground Drawings. [! — Earthen figures formed in high relief, 

 or engraven upon the turf, representing human beings, difterent 

 animals, and other curious designs, ai'e found chiefly at those 

 places where the young men of the tribe are admitted into the 

 rank of manhood. Where they have been obser^ed in other 

 localities the circumstances would lead us to suppose that they 

 weri' connected with sonu' tribal myth or superstition, or were 

 used on festive occasions. 



* .lourn. Anthrop. Inst., XXV, 14r.-163, Plates XIV-XVI ; Proc. Roy. Sop. Queen&- 



laml. XII, 97-98 ; Proc. Roy. Geof?. Soc. Aust. (Q.), X, 46-70 ; Ibid., XI, HG-lO.'i. 



i Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. Aust. iQ.), .^, 60. 



; Alioriguies of Victoria,*!, Hft-. 



