28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 79 



pendant worn by Papuans suspended from the girdle consists of tlie 

 mandible (lower jawbone) of some departed ancestor or other rela- 

 tive snatched from the putrefying body. After the flesh has been 

 scraped away a fabric band is woven around the central part of the 

 mandible and a suspension loop attached. Two of these amuletic 

 pendants from the Kirakai River are included in the collection 

 brought back by the expedition. Negritos bury their dead according 

 to a ritual, and so offer another testimony of the superiority of their 

 culture over that of the Papuan. 



It is in his material culture and decorative art designs that the 

 peculiar development of the Negrito is best demonstrated. Houses 

 are erected of rough-hewn wooden slabs set vertically and covered 

 over with grass and palm-leaf thatch. The flooring of rough-hewn 

 boards is placed several inches above the ground. This is probably 

 a culture survival, as there appears to be no need for this custom, 

 either as a protective or sanitary measure, in the salubrious uplands 

 of the Nassau Mountains. Decorative art is manifest principally in 

 surface patterns on weapons. 



Clearings are perched on precarious slopes of the steep mountain 

 sides. Various crops are produced. A variety of white sweetpotato, 

 sago, taro roots, sugarcane, bananas, tobacco, and lemons are staple 

 products. The use of potatoes and of starchy food in general is 

 preponderant in the diet of the Negrito and causes an unusual dis- 

 tension of the stomach and abdominal region. An oblong wooden 

 food dish is cut out of the solid trunk of a certain soft-textured 

 tree. These food dishes are two or more feet in length and are used 

 somewhat as mixing bowls or as mealing stones, no stone mortar being 

 employed. 



Spoons, awls, dirks, weaving and plaiting implements, and various 

 other objects are fashioned into implements for daily domestic use 

 from leg and wing bones of birds, chiefly from the tibiae of the 

 cassowary, a tall and somewhat vicious bird inhabiting all sections of 

 the island. By far the greater use of bone is in the fashioning of 

 ornamental objects, charms, and trophies. Here, again, there is an 

 observable distinction between the primitive technology of the Ne- 

 grito and the Papuan. The marked tendency of the Negrito is in 

 the direction of simplicity of construction or meagerness of applica- 

 tion and is linked with excellent technique and artistic merit in 

 ornamental designs introduced. The Papuan displays a lavish use 

 of materials combined with a coarseness of technique and a quite 

 elementary art impulse and execution of design. 



A food cooker like that of the Polynesians is used by the Negrito. 

 A depression is made in the ground and is lined with stones. In 

 this cavity are placed food ingredients, such as meat, potatoes, or 



