387 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES. 
Br Richd. Helms. 
(Communicated by the Secretary. ) 
(Plates xxix.-xxx.) 
Introductory Remarks. 
The following notes are to a great extent compiled from com- 
munications I have from time to time received from old settlers 
who in their early days frequently came in contact with the 
Aborigines inhabiting the neighbourhood of their settlements, and 
who remember the habits and customs of these extinct or 
decaying tribes. Special thanks I owe to Mr. John Barry, Senr., 
who settled on the Mowamba River more than forty years ago, 
and from whose store of vivid recollections I have drawn a great 
many of the facts now set down. 
It is to be regretted that the narratives are but fragmentary 
3 r et I consider them sufficiently interesting to be recorded, more 
especially on account of the comparisons that may be drawn 
between the manners described and those of other Australian 
tribes. 
I do not intend to dilate upon this subject, but merely wish 
to remark that, viewing the manners and customs described from 
a general aspect, it becomes apparent that they are very similar, 
and that they originated in common with those of the great bulk 
of the other Australian aboriginal tribes. The tribes here spoken 
of differed from most of their compatriots in the neglect of some 
widespread customs rather than in the practice of peculiar rites. I 
am alluding to the rites of circumcision and of the mika operation, 
neither of which were practised by the tribes that lived in the 
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