32 PL'OCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM tol. 79 



zueia and Guiana. Sometimes a bit of crimson color is obtained by 

 addition of tail coverts of small birds of brilliant hue. 



Wristlets of coarse braided rattan, which are also used as fire 

 thongs, or of more finely woven braided bands of fine basketry 

 material, and others, stained to form geometric designs, complete 

 the costume ; though many additional touches are lent by ornamental 

 necklaces of variously colored seeds, shell, and beads from cut 

 section of orchid stems. 



A characteristic object from the Papuans of the Kirakai and mid- 

 Kouffaer Kivers is a trophy bag carried by the Papuans m much the 

 same manner as the Negrito carries his trophy bag, to which, how- 

 ever, it is far inferior. This trophy bag seems to have a certain 

 value as a charm and the essential ornamental features, chiefly 

 pendants of the crudest kind, occur also as pendants on amuletic 

 necklaces worn by Papuan women of the central plain. The pen- 

 dants are trophies of the hunt, as cassowary bird heads, beaks of 

 hornbill, feet of bird of paradise, leg bones of various birds, pig 

 tails, and snake tails. All of these are attached at the side of the 

 rather compactly twined woven bag with loops of rattan splints, 

 the ends of which are inserted between skin and bone of the leg and 

 tail piece pendants. Shrinkage due to drying causes the rattan loops 

 to remain firmly fixed. The amuletic necklaces worn bj' Papuan 

 women have still other pendants attached, such as fragments of 

 bird bodies, seeds of the common allspice, sections of bone and shell, 

 together with bits of bark. 



One of the more characteristic methods of executing ornamental 

 designs employed by Papuans is the etching of surface designs on 

 arrow points. These designs are so highly differentiated as to easily 

 distinguish one area from another and also from the designs executed 

 by Negritos on their bamboo arrow points. The latter are character- 

 ized by wrappings of peeled grommets of orchid stems. Papuan 

 designs are applied both to bamboo shaft and bamboo or palm-wood 

 foreshaft and may take the form either of curvilinear or rectilinear 

 surface etchings or of carvings on the body of the foreshaft. Inlay 

 of lime or white paint is sometimes applied on carved surfaces in 

 true Melanesian style. 



A peculiarity of the Negrito arrow from the Upper Rouffaer 

 Valley is the banded ferrule which is placed over the juncture of 

 palm-wood foreshaft with bamboo shaft. This small woven ferrule 

 with its unique spiny surface, due to the peculiar twined weave, is 

 identical with the ferrule made by the Negrito in the Philippine 

 Islands and which is used by them for a similar function. This is 

 the only deep-seated resemblance noted in the weapons of these 

 widely separated pygmy groups, unless one takes into consideration 



