Another curious mutilation occurs which is not practised universally, but it is widely spread over the Australian continent. The following short report will show the occurrence of the custom in parts of New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It was mainly in vogue amongst women near the coast, but its appearance was observed amongst individual inland tribes. As far as I am informed it was usually the little finger that was amputated, but occasionally one of the other fingers instead. Then we will see that in most cases where such mutilations have been reported they are solely restricted to women, but in some parts of Australia the loss of a phalanx is also claimed by men.

Amongst the Thurrawal speaking tribes, from Port Hacking down to the Shoalhaven River, there are certain women who are missing two phalanges, though sometimes only one, of the little finger of one hand. Mostly it was the right hand, but it also occurred that the little finger of the left hand was mutilated in this way. Out in the scrub there are large spiders that spin a strong thread from tree to tree or from bush to bush. Some of these spider’s threads were collected by a native and put together as a fine string, which was wound as tight as the twine permitted around the finger at the phalanx, the amputation of which was intended. Thus the circulation of blood was stopped and the distal end of the finger died off. The wound then healed very quickly.

According to my own observations, I can state that this custom existed everywhere along the coast of New South Wales from Tuross River to the Manning. During my official travels in this region as surveyor, and also during special excursions amongst the natives, I undertook examinations into the causes of these mutilations. Insofar as I could inform myself about them from old natives, they carried the character of magic with them, because a woman who was mutilated in this way was supposed to have more skilfulness and success catching fish than other women who were not. The amputation was carried out on very young girls in the described manner to appoint them as fishers with rod and line. It also served to distinguish the respective woman from others who had different occupations.

E. M. Curr says that in Queensland, from Brisbane to Gympie, ‘[m]others used to bind round at the second joint, the little finger of the left hand of their daughters when about 10 years old, with coarse spider’s webs so as to stop circulation and cause the two joints to drop off.’^[6] The same author reports that between the Albert and Tweed rivers the girls during childhood have the small finger of the left hand cut off.^[7] He also says that at Halifax Bay the women have a phalanx of the right thumb amputated.^[8] Where Curr talks about the natives of Fraser Island, from the mouth of Mary River up, he says: ‘Women have the first phalanx of the little finger of the right hand amputated during their youth.’^[9]

The late Edward Palmer told me that he noticed the loss of a finger with blacks around Tower Hill and the surrounding area, between Maghenden and Muttaburra. He had observed the same mutilation with tribes at Mitchell River on the Cape York Peninsula, but he was unable to remember which finger was missing there.

In the Northern Territory Reverend Donald MacKillop observed this custom at Daly River. Talking about the women he said: ‘When young girls they remove the two first joints of the right forefinger. The operation is most artistically performed, judging by results. Yet they use no knife or, as when circumcising, sharp stone. They find in the jungles a very strong cobweb, and with a thin skein of this they tie tightly round the joint. The circulation is, of course, stopped, and after a time the dead joints fall off. This custom is far from universal.’^[10]

From Beagle Bay in Western Australia Captain J. L. Stokes reports on the appearance of the natives: ‘All of them had lost one of the front teeth, and several one finger joint; in this particular they differed from the natives seen in Roebuck Bay, amongst whom the practice of this mutilation did not prevail.’^[11]