28 Art. VII.— A. MatsTimura: 



women in Jaluit wearing snch metal rings. We learn, however, 

 from F. J. Moss^ that large ear-rings, very different from those in 

 use in Trnk, were, and still are (?) worn in the Marshall Islands. 

 They are not flat rings, but large rings obtained perhaps by cut- 

 ting shells crosswise. They are inserted into the lioles in both 

 lobes, so that the openings become widely distended. The orna- 

 ments worn by a king of the island o! Majuro were of this kind. 

 2. Nose Ornaments. — In Kusaie, 1 saw an old woman, some 

 sixty years of age, who had a small hole in the nasal septum. 

 When I asked what it meant, I was inf<^rmed that she had former- 

 1}^ had nose- ornaments inserted into the orifice. This is not so 

 extraordinary, since the custom of having ornaments inserted in 

 the opening in tlie nasal septum occurs also among the Papuans. 

 But as this was the only case I observed in Kusaie, it is difficult 

 to decide from this single instance the existence or non-existence 

 of the practice in the island. Since the custom of piercing a hole 

 in the nasal septum and wearing a flower in it is said to have 

 existed in the West Caroline Islands in former times, the solitary 

 instance observed in Kusaie may not unreasonably be taken as 

 strong evidence of tlie former existence of a similar custom in the 

 island also. 



III. Adornment with Obieots fixed to the Body 

 WITHOUT Mutilating. 



The adorning of the body with various ornaments attached 

 but involving no mutilation of the body itself, marks great progress 

 in personal adornment. This custom is almost universal throughout 

 the world. The ornaments are generally fixed around the head or 



1 F. J. Moss, " Through Atolls and Islamls in the great South Sea," London. 189:), Plate 

 facing page 127. 



