compression during infancy. Pressure is made by the mother with her
hands--as I have seen practised on more than one occasion at Cape
York--one being applied to the forehead and the other to the occiput,
both of which are thereby flattened, while the skull is rendered
proportionally broader and longer than it would naturally have been.*

(*Footnote. Precisely the same form of skull as that alluded to in volume
1: hence it is not unreasonable to suppose that the latter might have
been artificially produced.)

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
cic