Ethnography of Mktouchîh. 3^ 



The custom of wearing a covering made of the leaves of jjlants 

 round the waist by men is also found in tlie Marshall Islands. 

 In Nauru or Pleasant Island, which belongs to the grou}) and is 

 situated south of the Equator, both men and women wear a cover- 

 ing made of the leaves of pandanus. The pattern does not differ 

 with the sex. But the covering used in this island reaches only 

 half down the thighs, and is much shorter than the one worn by 

 the islanders of Majuro.^ 



The Marshall Islanders, as is described later on, have the 

 custom of covering the waist with a fine mat i)laitcd from the 

 leaves of pandanus. The men pass a piece of this mat between 

 the thighs and fasten it with a sort of leather belt ; while the 

 women take two pieces with wdiich they cover the lower parts of 

 the body before and behind, employing them as a soit of loin- 

 cloth.^ Formerly, the women did not cover the upper part of the 

 body but now some of them wear coats imitating the European 

 fashion. 



I failed to observe this custom in the islands which I visited. 

 But considering that, in manners and customs, the hidden things, 

 such as the loin-cloth or similar coverings in the case of clothing, 

 and kitchen utensils or the privy in dwellings, do not usually 

 change so rapidly as their external features, it is improbable that 

 the women have cast aside their old custom even to the waist- 

 cloth, even if they have come to wrap themselves in European 

 clothes. Many of the women of Truk, for instance, who take 

 pride in dressing in European style, wear fabric of their own weav- 

 ing described above, as loin-cloth ; so even when these native 



1 p. A. Enlland, " Die MarshaU-Insii'anrr. Leben imd Sitte und Religion eines Südseevolkop," 

 Münster i.W , 1914, Taf. 1, 13, 14. F. J. Moss, " Through Atolls and Islands in the great South 

 Sea," p. 136; Pis. facing pages 123 and 136. 



2 P. A. Erdland, ibid., pp. 23-25 ; Taf. 5, 6. 



