514 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
very outset obstructed by the scanty knowledge which any 
reliable observer can possibly possess of the native dialect in 
which it is given expression to. During the course of my 
peregrinations in North Queensland, during the past eight 
or nine years, I have, for instance, met only with four, or at 
the most five, individuals having such an accurate know- 
ledge of the language that their translations could be abso- 
lutely depended upon. But even such knowledge has, in a 
sense, its disadvantages, for the reason that its very fulfil- 
ment entails intimate relationship between the white and 
the black for a period of at least many years, during which 
the personal influence of the more civilised individual un- 
doubtedly exercises important changes in his more unso- 
phisticated friend’s thoughts, customs, and general social 
system, these in the meantime becoming gradually covered 
with European veneer. The following notes are based upon 
some scores of songs which I have heard in the N.W.-Central 
districts, in the Peninsula, and along portions of the eastern 
seaboard (especially among the Tully River scrubs, where 
I had exceptional opportunities of obtaining reliable infor- 
mation), z.e., for the most part in those areas where the 
aboriginals have, comparatively speaking, been least con. 
taminated by civilising influences. 
Anybody may “ find”’ or compose a song, adaptable to his 
or her respective sex, and when. pressed for further informa- 
tion will often make the allegation that it came into being 
in the course of a dream—an idea prevalent both on the 
western borden and eastern coast-line. Accompanying 
decorations or dances, if any, may also be explained on the 
same basis. Each song consists of the chanting of some 
short sentence or sentences repeated ad libitum ; during the 
utterance of the last two or three words the singer may be 
accompanied vocally by the others, thus giving rise to the 
opinion, often expressed, of the existence of a distinct and 
separate chorus. It but very rarely happens that a native 
will sing without a listener. In the actual wording of the 
Pitta-Pitta songs of Boulia there are undoubtedly variations 
from the ordinary every-day colloquial language in pro- 
nunciation, inflexion, pleonasm, and ellipsis, which may per- 
haps be regarded in the light of poetical or musical licence. 
Again, in several of the Tully River songs. many words occur 
which are not used in ordinary conversation—they may 
sometimes even have no intelligible meaning—thus render- 
ing an absolutely literal translation impossible. A word 
may even have a different meaning, according as it is used 
in prose or poetry; e.g., pandun (MAL) signifies “to 
