628 MATHEWS—SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. [Oct. 5, 
regards slitting a portion only of the urethral canal and leaving the 
head of the penis intact, a police trooper named Richards, in speak- 
ing of the natives of Fowler’s Bay and Davenport Creek, South 
Australia, says: ‘‘ An incision is made in the penis from near the 
testes to nearly the end.’’* C. Provis, a corporal in the police 
force, referring to the people near the same district, says: ‘* An in- 
cision about half an inch long is made in the urethra between the 
scrotum and glans penis.’”® 
Whether the incision is made from the meatus or there is only 
a perforation in the middle of the urethral canal in the way de- 
scribed, the subjects always afterward pass their water through the 
artificial opening. The men partially squat down during micturi- 
tion and hold the penis horizontal with one hand. After the 
wound heals the urethra appears as a mere groove which becomes 
callous; and in those-cases where the glans is split, the penis dur- 
ing erection becomes flatter and broader at the extremity than in 
its natural condition. 
There is a widely spread opinion among laymen, and a few medical 
men have been found concurring in the same view, that the object 
of this rite is to prevent impregnation. I have made searching 
personal inquiries over an immense extent of country in Queens- 
land, South Australia and Western Australia, and have collected in- 
contestible evidence that men who have been operated upon in this 
way can be the fathers of families. Another equally erroneous 
popular belief is that some of the men are left intact for the purpose 
of propagating the race. Having carefully investigated this matter 
I am quite satisfied that in any case where such men have been 
observed they have been merely visitors from other tribes where the 
custom was not in force. 
SCARRING THE Bopy. 
Raising cicatrices by means of cutting on the back and chest is a 
custom of wide prevalence among the Australian aborigines, but 
more importance is attached to the ceremony in some districts than 
in others. From Cooper’s Creek to the Great Australian Bight the 
rite may be briefly described as follows : 
The subject is kept awake without food or clothing during a cold 
night, as in the two last described ceremonies, and in the morning, 
1 Folklore, Manners, etc., S. A. Aborigines (1879), p. 103. 
* [bid., p. 99. 
