IH ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF QUEENSLAND. 



be inclined to believe that the blacks have advanced 

 architectural ideas, for their dwellings have a basement 

 and floors. A smouldering fire is maintained in each 

 basement, the staging above being the bed-chamber, so 

 that dujing the mosquito season the occupants live in a 

 smoke saturated atmosphere, outside which the baffled 

 insects hum ferociously. These mosquito proof dwellings 

 in some localities are arranged in series, each for the 

 accommodation of one man and so placed in accordance 

 with the prevailing breeze that the smoke circulates through- 

 out. To each " mak-in-deen-ahr " there must be a stoker 

 or smoker. That office — as everyone who has the knowledge 

 of the economic methods of Australian blacks will realise 

 without explanation — falls to the Avife of the owner of the 

 structure. She squats beneath while her lord and niastej" 

 sleeps peacefully in his envelope of sinoke^ and if his rest be 

 disturbed it is the easiest thing in the Avorld to silently 

 arouse his attendant with the expressive end of a spear. 



The following points are worthy of special mention : — 

 ^a). The original burning of grass, especially round water 

 holes. (6). The breaking of the wings of the emu after 

 its capture to prevent its escape. (c). Surrounding water 

 holes with dry stick fences to keep creatui'es from con- 

 taminating the sup})ly. (r/-). Also with a vie^^- to using 

 them as traps for emus. (e). The use c^ Terminaha gum 

 as a purgative. 



The voyage of H.M.8. " Rattlesnake " (76) was note- 

 worthy for Kennedy's • tragic expedition undertaken for 

 the exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. The narrative 

 describes the attitude of the natives, their friendliness and 

 hostility, but since their moods were in most cases dependent 

 upon the consideration shown and the tempei- of the explorers 

 at the time, they are hardly of ethnological value. The 

 confirmatory reference to stone ovens (as for instance near 

 "Princess Charlotte Bay) is important as well as the fact 

 that boiling water was unknown. In the main portion of 

 the book the following details might be picked out for 

 special consideration. (a). The dual use of oblong pieces 

 of bark, not much wider than the hand, as paddles and 

 bailers of canoes. These are still in use on the coast north 

 from Hinchinbrook Island, the ejection of water from the 



