Ethnography of Micronesia. &1 



work.i Under the caption of " Castration," he writes that there is 

 a custom in Ponapé for boys to undergo castration at sixteen and 

 up to twenty years of age. Those who will not be castrated 

 are despised by the girls as cowards, so the boys, almost without 

 exception, undergo the operation willingly. When they recover 

 from the operation and regain their health, they tell their friends 

 both male and female, about it by way of boasting of their 

 courage. The operators, who are old men, are limited to a few 

 in number and the operation is done in secret with the assistance 

 of their friends. If close attention is not paid to the operation 

 itself or the care after it, those operated on are said to be attack- 

 ed by fever, and some even die. 



Chapter YIII. 



Miscellany. 

 1. Cold Bath.— The natives of Truk and Panapé bathe in 

 small streams or pools. In Truk I saw two women with children 

 bathing in a muddy stream, which ran across a road and which was 

 only several inches deep. They squatted or nearly squatted in the 

 stream, splashing water on their bodies. They did not use towels 

 or anything of the kind. The natives, young and old, bathe with 

 their waist-cloth on, but only for a short time. They never wipe 

 their bodies, when they are out of the water. Some change their 

 waist- cloth for a dry one, but others go home with the wet cloth on. 

 The natives in Samoa also bathe without taking off their waist-cloth.^ 



1 A. Cabeza Pereiro, " La Isla de Ponapé. Geographia, Etnographüi, Historia," Manila 

 1895, pp. 130-132. 



2 G. Turner, '-Samoa," p. 121. 



