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.

The custom of undergoing a certain mysterious ceremony prior to being admitted to the privileges of manhood, supposed to be an institution peculiar to the Australians, is found among the Kowraregas, but whether it extends throughout Torres Strait is uncertain.  This initiation is not at Cape York and Muralug accompanied by the performance either of circumcision or the knocking out of a tooth, as in many parts of Australia.  The boys, usually three or four in number, are chased about in the bush during the day by some of the men decked out with feathers and other ornaments, and at night retire to the men’s camp, for, during the whole time of their novitiate—­or about a month—­they must on no account be seen by a woman; in fact, as Giaom informed me, a woman coming upon these kernele—­as they are called—­no matter how accidentally, would be immediately put to death.  When all is over the lads return to their parents, decorated with a profusion of ornaments which are worn until they drop off, and wearing in front a small triangular piece of shell as a distinguishing mark.

Canoes of Torres strait.