PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 485 
of domestic or ‘“‘home”’ life, methods of hunting, ceremonial, 
and warfare. Discriminative sports include the various 
forms of hide-and-seek and the guess-game. Disputative 
games comprise wrestling and a variation of the tug-of-war. 
Toys, or specially manufactured articles, all present the 
peculiarity that the source of the enjoyment consists in the 
particular form of motion which may be imparted to them: 
I may perhaps be allowed to call them propulsive games. 
Music, which may be either vocal or instrumental, consti- 
tutes another of the groups (exultative games) to. which 
attention wiil be directed. I shall finally have a few words 
to say with regard to games introduced of late years by mis- 
sionaries, settlers, and others. 
Imaginative Games.—No small difficulty has been experi- 
enced in separating certain of the fables and stories which 
are told for pure amusement from those which, in the minds 
of the aboriginals, are explanatory of the many natural 
phenomena around them. Though at first sight it might 
appear that the intent of some of the tales in the former 
series is to point a precept or moral, I am afraid that, with 
few exceptions, such is far from either being the case or 
serving the purpose—the pleasure derivable from their re- 
cital lies rather in the craft and wit delineated, together 
with the local colouring and personal address of the speaker. 
The light in which such stories are regarded varies.markedly 
in different districts. In the N.W.-Centra! areas, the 
women, and those men who are “ lazy ’’—1.e., those who are 
always loafing around the camps—are the best hands at tell- 
ing them. An individual in the full vigour of mental and © 
bodily physique looks upon it as womanish and childish, 
almost derogatory, to know anything concerning them, and 
will almost invariably refer to his gin when any such matters 
are inquired of. At Princess Charlotte Bay (East Coast), 
on the other hand, it was the men who prided themselves on 
spinning these yarns, and many a night have I spent in the 
camps listening to their narration, each tale being inter- 
preted for my benefit. In all cases these stories appeared 
to be well known to the tribesmen of the particular indi- 
vidual relating them, and hence, locally, might almost be 
described as national; so much so, indeed, that it was of no 
uncommon occurrence for the reciter to be suddenly inter- 
rupted and corrected, and the general thread of the story 
to be resumed only after four or five disputants had had 
their say. Still further south, amofig the scrub blacks (not 
the coastal ones) along the lower Tully River, we come upon 
the professional storyteller; such an one can tell no end of 
