Ethnography of Micronesia. 



103 



design. Before they undergo the operation they have the pubes 

 removed— a fact which accounts for the lack of the pubic hair on 

 native women. We are told that a similar custom also prevails 



Fig. 39.- Lower part of female figiire carved on the gable of the 

 yoimg men'.s club-house, Koror, Palau. 



among the women of Yap. The manner of tattooing among the 

 women of Palau may be seen from a female figure with open 

 legs sculptured on the gable of a club-house for young men in 

 the islands (Fig. 39 and PL XXXI, fig. 2). 



With regard to the tattooing around the genitals among women 

 in Palau, N. von Miklucho-Maclay writes as follows : " Die Mons 

 Veneris wird erst nach dem Auftreten der Menstruation vorgenom- 

 men. Auch die vorderen äusseren Teile der grossen Schamlippen 

 erscheinen tattuirt. Das Tattuiren dieser Teile ist auch der Grund, 

 weshalb die Haare an den Genitahen bei Frauen ausgerupft werden. 

 Die Tattuirung des Mons Veneris, obwohl sehr schmerzhaft, wird, 

 wie man mir sagte, an einem Nachmittage vollendet." ^ As this 

 quotation shows, Miklucho-Maclay thinks that the tattooing on 

 girls is undertaken after the first appearance of menstruation. So 

 far as I know, however, girls, though they already had reached 



I N. von Miklucho-Maclay, "Anthropologische Notizen, gesammelt auf einer Keise i^ J^*- 

 Mikronesien und Nord-TVIelanesien in Jahre 1876," Verh. d. Berlin. Gesell, f. Anthr., 1»^», V- 

 107 ; Taf. XI. 



