Page:Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland.djvu/46

20 pierced (women never had), and it was considered a great thing to have a bone through one's nose! This bone was generally taken from a swan's wing, but it might be from a hawk's wing, or a small bone from the kangaroo's leg; and was supposed to be about four inches long. It was only worn during corrobborees or fights, and was called the "buluwalam."

In every day life a man always wore a belt or "makamba," in which he carried his boomerang. This belt measured from six feet to eight feet in length, and was worn twisted round and round the waist. It was netted either from possum or human hair—but only the great men of the tribe wore human hair belts. A man could also wear "grass-bugle" necklaces ("kulgaripin") at any time; these being made from reeds cut into little pieces and strung together on a string of fibre. But in addition to his everyday dress, during a corrobboree a blackfellow would wear round his forehead a band made from root fibre, very nicely plaited, and painted white with clay; also the skin of a native dog's tail (cured with charcoal and dried in the sun), or, rather, a part of one, for one tail made three headdresses when cut up the middle. This piece of tail stuck round the head like a beautiful yellow brush — the natives called it "gilla," and the forehead band "tinggil." Then on his arm kangaroo-skin bands were worn, and these had to be made from the underbody part of the skin, which was of a much lighter colour than the back. Lastly, a man was ornamented with swan's down stuck in his hair and beard, and in strips up and down his body and legs, back and front; or, if he was an inland black, parrot feathers took the place of the down.

Women wore practically no ornaments except necklaces, and feathers stuck in their short hair in bunches, with bees' wax. (The feathers and bees' wax were always ready in their dillies.) Their hair was always kept short, as they were apt to tear at each other when fighting. Men's hair grew long, and some of the great men had theirs tied up in a knob on the top of the head, and when such was the case they wore in this knob little sticks ornamented with yellow feathers from