Chap, xviii.] SKULLS AND HAIR IN TEMPLES. 



409 



monly worn. On the upper part of the chest of the male figure 

 are a series of circular white ring-marks on a black ground, 

 which evidently denote the circular cicatrizations present in all 

 the male natives. In the female figure the tattooing is possibly 

 intended by a wide patch of diagonal ornamentation upon the 

 abdomen, as also by lines drawn round the eyes, and not 

 present in the male figure. In the male figure one lateral half 

 of the face is painted white, and the other red. The arrange- 

 ment of paint in this way is in vogue amongst the natives here 

 as at Fiji ; I saw one Admiralty man with one side only of his 

 face reddened, and in Fiji, at dances, it is common to see 

 natives with one lateral half of the face blue, and the other 

 red or black. All the ornamentation on the figures is of the 

 common zig-zag pattern, and formed of a series of lozenge 

 and triangular-shaped spaces. The patterns are incised, and 

 coloured of three colours, black, red, and white. The parts 

 coloured white and red are cut in, whilst the patches of original 

 surface left in relief are blackened. Guardian deities, such as 

 these, are common in Melanesia and Papua, as is also their 

 combination with representations of fish ; carefully coloured 

 drawings of the figures were made by Mr. J. J. Wild, artist of 

 the Expedition, and my description of the figures is derived from 

 these drawings. 



Another temple had no figures, but the four large drums 

 already mentioned. To the rafters and supports of the roofs 

 of these temples inside are fixed up quantities of skulls of pigs 

 and turtles, all arranged regularly, with the snouts downward. 

 The skulls were decorated with colours. With them were 

 suspended large quantities of balls of human hair, some 

 evidently old, others of recent date : these balls or masses of 

 hair were suspended sometimes in networks of string, sometimes 

 in small receptacles of a very open basket-work. Both the 

 bunches of hair and the skulls appeared often to have regular 

 owners, though dedicated in the temple; the natives parted 

 with both freely for barter. 



The hair is probably cut off as a religious ceremony ; some 

 men had the hair recently cut off. A Dugong's and a Porpoise's 

 skull were produced for barter. The natives evidently treasure 

 skulls of all sorts. Human skulls are likewise kept stuck up 

 in the thatch of the houses. At Dentrecasteaux Island, one 

 having an ornament in the nose was suspended to the front of 

 a house over the doorway by means of a stick thrust through 

 holes in the two squamous parts of the temporal bone. This 

 skull the owner could not be induced to part with, but usually 

 they were sold pretty freely, and they were in considerable 

 abundance about the houses, but often much shattered ; a 



