When the child is about a fortnight old the perforation in the septum of the nose is made by drilling it with a sharp-pointed piece of tortoise-shell, but the raised artificial scars, regarded as personal ornaments by the Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, are not made until long afterwards. According to Giaom, who states that among the Kowraregas this scarification is purely voluntary, the patient is laid upon the ground and held there, while the incisions are made with a piece of glass by some old man famous for his skill in performing the operation. The chewed leaf of a certain plant (which, however, I could not identify) is introduced into the wound to prevent the edges from uniting, and a daub of wet clay is then placed over all, and kept there until the necessary effect has been produced. The principal scarifications among women at Cape York and Muralug are in the form of long lines across the hips. Among the men, however, there is considerable variety. The characteristic mode of dressing the hair among the Torres Strait Islanders is to have it twisted up into long pipe-like ringlets, and wigs in imitation of this are also worn. Sometimes the head is shaved, leaving a transverse crest--a practice seldom seen among the men but not uncommon among women and children, from Darnley Island down to Cape York. At the last place and Muralug the hair is almost always kept short--still caprice and fashion have their sway, for at Cape York I have at times for a week together seen all the men and lads with the hair twisted into little strands well daubed over with red ochre and turtle fat. RAISED CICATRICES ON THE BODY. The Torres Strait Islanders are distinguished by a large complicated oval scar, only slightly raised, and of neat construction. This, which I have been told has some connection with a turtle, occupies the right shoulder, and is occasionally repeated on the left. At Cape York, however, the cicatrices were so varied, that I could not connect any particular style with an individual tribe--at the same time something like uniformity was noticed among the Katchialaigas, nearly all of whom had, in addition to the horned breast-mark, two or three long transverse scars on the chest, which the other tribes did not possess. In the remaining people the variety of marking was such that it appeared fair to consider it as being regulated more by individual caprice than by any fixed custom. Many had a simple two-horned mark on each breast, and we sometimes saw among them a clumsy imitation of the elaborate shoulder mark of the islanders. INITIATION TO RIGHTS OF MANHOOD.