BY R. HAMLYN-HARRIS. 31 



going hand iu hand) we find that the rites are apparently 

 confined to the very districts covered by this route, or in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of this route, or along df^finite 

 paths leading from this area. ui 



It is worthy of note that the practice of cutting off the 

 nipples from the breast synchronises with sub incision in 

 the Cloncurry Dii^'trict and the Mackinley Range (Cox 16), 

 and. it should also be mentioned liere that N. de Miklouho- 

 Maclay (98) records the practice of making an incision in 

 the groins and removing the ovaries on the Herbert and 

 Mulligan Rivets. 



These considerations [ have endeavoured to place 

 before you are a direct contradiction of Bancroft's state- 

 ment (7) that ".It appears that sexual mutilations are 

 practised in those parts of Australia alone in which the 

 food supply is precarious." As far as I can sec this is not 

 borne out by any evidence whatever — the statement ha« 

 evidently originated from the belief that mutilation of the 

 genitals was practised in order to lestrict the increase of 

 progeny in dry areas. 



The practice of mumnufiration. however, does not seem 

 to have taken this path, the principal centre being on the 

 east coast of Queensland around Cairns and the Johnstone 

 River, extending southwards. Now this sHiyularly re- 

 stricted area suggests that mummification wast not intro- 

 duced from Malaysia nor \vA Cape York, but was brought 

 from the far islands of the Torres Straits by natives who 

 were carried on to the north-eastern coast of Queensland^ 

 more or less by chance. It would appear that the native 

 canoes sailing from the regions around the south-eastern 

 portions of New Guinea would, if they were caught by the 

 trade winds and ciuTents, as they frecjuently were, be 

 carried tow^ards that very area of Queensland Avhere 

 mumiliification is •known to be practised. The placing of 

 a dead warrioi* on a frame of wood over a smouldering 

 smoking fire is only a phase of the same thing. (Cliffe 

 Mackie 75).* 



Klliot .Smith in his most interesting study of 'fcho: 

 migrations of peoples connects the Cape York Penmstila 



^Consult also Spencer aud Gillen on tree burial (127 .\, CiiMp'er 17). 



