498 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION FEF. 
(b) Catching Cockatoos is indulged in by little boys and 
girls in the same districts as the preceding. The more child- 
ren there are in it, the merrier it is. Each hand is placed 
one on top of the other as before, but in this case the fore- 
finger of the hand below is encircled by the thumb and 
three fingers of the hand above (Pl. XXII., XXIII.). These 
hands represent cockatoos sitting one above the other on a 
branch of tree. The one free hand in the group of players 
now makes a dart at the topmost fore-finger, the topmost 
cockatoo, which it catches in the fork between the fore and 
middle fingers, the fork being supposed to be a pronged 
spear. The “cockatoo” is then put up to the spear-owner’s 
mouth (Pl. XXIV.), a click given—the sign of its being 
eaten—and handed in similar fashion to the other players, 
each in turn uttering the same note of satisfaction. The 
remaining birds are speared and disposed of on the same 
lines. 
(c) Playing Bean-tree is met with among the little boys 
and girls on the lower Tully River. Several children sit 
down in a circle, and one starts the game by placing her one 
hand on her knee, and the other on top; the next child 
places hers similarly above, and so on, until there results a 
vertical column of little fists. | Each hand is previously 
twisted out of shape by bending one finger over and behind 
the other, and, when all the fists are placed in apposition, the 
thumb of the hand above is always made to rest on the little 
finger of the one immediately below (Pl. XXV.—the thumb 
of the second hand has accidentally got loose). This column 
of human flesh represents the bean-tree (Castanospermum 
australe), and each hand a bean. The girl (or boy) who 
directs the run of the game next removes the topmost fist 
by pinching up the skin on its dorsum, at the same time 
poking her fore-finger up into its palm (Pl. XXVI.); the 
hand thus falls off, with the fingers free, and lies hmp, palm 
up, at its owner’s side. One bean has been gathered. Thus 
gathering all the beans one after the other, the leader starts 
pretending to collect them, and finally running away to a 
distance, is supposed to hide them in the scrub. The other 
players soon follow, and commence trying to find them, but 
their efforts ere of course in vain; and when she thinks 
they have had enough of it, the leader will tell them that a 
flood has suddenly come up and carried all the beans away. 
(d) Cracking beans, another children’s game practised in 
the same district, is in imitation of the sound of the nut 
cracking when being opened (by hammering with a stone) 
in order to get the kernel out. The palms are slightly 
