223 
roadway marks? 24. Ditto of telegraphic signals? 25. Are 
any public wells dug? and any regulations established for 
the use of them ? 
F, G. 
No. LXIX.—TRIBAL MARKS. 
(See also III. Painting and Tattooing ; XL. Totemism ; 
XLVII. War.) 
Many people mark their bodies in various ways, either by 
painting, tattooing, scarification or deformation, or wear pecu¬ 
liar and distinctive clothes, ornaments, or badges. It is 
important to discriminate between those body or dress decora¬ 
tions which are purely individual and those which have a 
social significance. Care must be taken not to mistake 
mourning scarifications, cuts made for sickness or pain, and 
marks indicating age or sex for tribal marks. It is possible 
that the people of a particular district may have a local 
method, or even a transient fashion, for certain scarifications, 
mode of dressing the hair, or other form of marking or 
decoration which might mislead a visitor into describing it as 
a tribal custom. Neither must the different styles of the 
art of neighbouring districts be mistaken for different tribal 
marks. Difference in technique or artistic feeling may 
characterise different tribes without these being in the least 
intentional. The same remarks apply to clothes and orna¬ 
ments. 
Very little is known about tribal marks in the true sense 
of the term. It is probable that such marks occur in countries 
like Australia, where there are clan restrictions as to mar¬ 
riage, the marks in these cases being to warn from incest. It 
would be interesting to see whether these marks can in any 
way be associated with the clan totem. In Torres Straits, 
for example, some women, at least, had their animal totem 
