DRESS 113 



measured, but it would probably be found that the 

 average height of the women was about two inches 

 less than that of the men. Such a height is small com- 

 pared with that of many races, but the first impression 

 you get of the PapuaiA|s that they are tall, for they 

 hold themselves well, ^p , all naked people look taller 

 than those who go cllthed. Their legs are thin and 

 rather meagre, due in J great measure to the large pro- 

 portion of their lives thai is spent in canoes, but they walk 

 with a good swinging ^t and cover the ground easily. 



It is a curious thing that a black man never looks 

 naked ; a white man undressed looks a naked man, 

 so too does a yellow man, but a Papuan — and nobody 

 could wear much less in the way of clothes than he 

 does — always seems to be sufficiently clad. The dress 

 of the Papuan men, as has been suggested above, is 

 scanty in the extreme. They have, or had before we 

 visited them, no cloth except a very inferior bark cloth 

 made from the bark of a species of iig tree. Some of 

 the men wear a narrow strip of this bark cloth, which 

 hangs down in front from a string round the loins 

 and keeps up an ineffectual pretence of decency. 



The more usual covering is the bamboo penis-case, 

 which is kept in position by pulling the preputium 

 through a hole in the lower end of the case. There are 

 three or four different patterns of penis-cases, and they 

 are always ornamented with carved designs. Another 

 equally common fashion of covering is the shell ; this 

 is an oval or roughly squared segment of a large white 

 sea shell, sometimes as much as six inches in diameter. 

 It is worn on a string which passes through two holes 



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